Homecoming
by brokenhearted.insomniac
Summary: Jamie is Tyler's halfsister who is coming home after 3 years of living w/ her mom. When Chase comes back is she the key to saving or destroying the coventant and it's secrets? put the old version back up for the time being. enjoy! R&R!
1. Chapter 1

The gravel grinded under the rubber tires of the large black SUV. The gravel grinded under the bottoms of the black pumps and the dirt brushed onto the bottom of the designer jeans. The teenage girl wearing them grinded her teeth—an unbelievable shade of white—as she walked to the front door: black curls pulled into a tight ponytail, perfectly pink lips pursed together, French manicure tightly gripping the keys, tight black blouse showing off a glowing tan and model curves, a small diamond reflecting the sunlight as it shone on her nose, a silver rod with a pink ball on each end resting peacefully at the edge of her right eyebrow, and eyes—those eyes—as green and mesmerizing as the day she'd left. Three years and counting. She pushed her over-sized sunglasses atop her head as she rang the doorbell and waited impatiently for a reply.

The large wooden doors opened with a creek. She drew in a breath of anticipation as the door seemed to be taking an eternity to open just a crack barely large enough to see the awkward boy with the red curly hair holding an almost empty beer. "Hello?" he slurred. "Who are you?"

"I could ask you the same thing." She raised a perfectly groomed eyebrow at the boy; it was a classic response when she knew she was about to have to entertain someone completely annoying or boring.

"You're hot! Are you here for Reid? Because he isn't home." The boy tried to take a sip of the beer in an attempt to be cool, but spilled most of it out onto his shirt.

Good ole' Reid. He never changed a bit. He was a womanizer from the day he was born. And was always the most mischievous of the boys. She imagined he still looked the exact same too: the same sharp features, the same porcelain, almost transparent skin, the same deep blue eyes that any girl would get lost in, the same temper that was always getting him in trouble, and the same sense of humor that no one else seemed to understand. But she'd understood it. She had always understood Reid in a way that no one else seemed to.

"Do you live here?" Jamie Wheeler was not in the mood to deal with drunk and/or moronic teenage boys.

"Nah. Just watching a movie. Who are you looking for?" The red-head let out a toxic belch that left Jamie ready to gasp for air.

Jamie waved a hand in front of her face to try to dissipate the un-breathable air. "Someone who lives here? Someone sober? Who fucking cares? Just get someone half-way useful!" Jamie begged.

The boy left without a comment. It was highly unexpected but also highly refreshing. Only moments later another boy appeared. This boy was taller—6'2" maybe—with black hair, golden skin, and muscles to die for. His honey-brown eyes weren't exactly hard on the eyes either. Yes, this boy was much better indeed. He was beautifully familiar and sober—just the combination Jamie was hoping for.

"Caleb Danvers! God! Are you still hanging around with my awesomely dorky big brother?" She kissed him on the cheek and threw her arms around his neck. "You haven't changed at all! Well, except for the fact that you grew, like, a foot since I saw you last!" she rambled.

It took a moment for Caleb to realize who the girl on the porch was or what was going on. The last time he'd seen Jamie was three years earlier when she was an awkward thirteen-year-old with stringy blonde hair, braces, and no shape to speak of. Obviously she'd been a late bloomer.

"Jamie? What a great surprise! How are you?" It was just like Caleb to act like a total gentleman without skipping a beat, even with his obvious surprise at seeing her. Plus, he had that kind of smile that could get a lucky girl in a lot of trouble. Not that Jamie was at all interested in getting into boy trouble so soon after her break-up from that creep of a boyfriend, Dylan.

"I'll be better when I come inside the nice warm house," Jamie hinted. Three years of living in the perpetually hot Miami had stripped her of her adaptation to the cold winters of Ipswich, Massachusetts.

Caleb was quick to step aside to allow Jamie to enter the castle-sized home. "Is Tyler expecting you?" His eyes were asking more questions than his lips.

"I hope so."

"Who am I expecting?" In stepped the always adorable Tyler Sims. He hadn't changed much at all since Jamie had seen him last. He looked just like his mom. He had the same brown, thick, wavy hair, same naturally pink cheeks, same soft features, and the same caramel eyes. He had grown some in three years. He was at least six feet tall.

"Speak of the devil," Jamie teased. She knew Tyler desperately wanted to be a bad-boy like his best friend in the world, Reid Garwin, but she also knew he would never succeed. He was too nice. Jamie walked over to hug her big brother.

"Jamie? Hey. What are you doing here?" He sounded surprised, but pleased. Tyler had always been close to his baby sister and was always happy to hear from her, but was worried that she'd driven from Miami to Ipswich with no warning. Something was up.

"Dad didn't call?" Jamie didn't sound surprised. "Typical," she mumbled, followed by a classic Jamie eye roll.

"Was he supposed to?" Tyler knew his sister was infamous for her ability to act; she was also known for her crazy stories that were usually only loosely based on real events.

"He said he would tell you. He was going to call you when he made it to his meeting in Tokyo."

"Tell me what?"

"That I'm moving home." Jamie smiled excitedly.

"What do you mean you're moving in? What happened to Miami? And what is that thing in your eyebrow?" Tyler asked.

"It's an eyebrow ring," Jamie answered. Not only did she and Tyler have the similar trait of stating the obvious, but she wanted nothing more at that moment than to avoid the topic of why she was back in Massachusetts.

"No shit," Tyler snapped. He knew something was very wrong concerning his little sister and he often times expressed his worry with what seemed like anger.

"I think what Tyler means," Caleb—the calmest and most serious of Tyler's friends—intervened, "is why don't we move this conversation to the kitchen where we can sit in relative privacy. Caleb had noticed several young boys in matching black, blue, and red Varsity jackets straining to hear the conversation from where they sat in the front living room of the house.

Jamie and Tyler both followed Caleb into the kitchen and they all sat around the small, cozy table. Jamie had always loved to sit at that table. The rest of the house had always been dark and decorated with heavy furniture that was never meant to be lived on—especially by kids. The table was like something out of a TV sitcom like the Brady Bunch where families actually seemed a little normal; they were families where people actually ate meals together with just the family and not one hundred of their closest friends at a charity auction being held at the house. Those TV sitcom families had always seemed so un-like anything Tyler or Jamie had grown up with.

"Jamie, what's going on? I thought you loved Miami. Besides, you spent your whole life trying to get away from here. Why are you so happy to move back?" Tyler reasoned. He'd talked to Jamie at least once a week since she'd moved three years earlier and she'd loved Miami from the day she got there.

"Miami was great. It was just time to leave. Things had changed—heartbreak and all that…" Jamie trailed off. She didn't want to go into the details of why she was leaving her home in Miami yet, though she knew that the truth would come out eventually. She took a deep breath before continuing. "Anyway, Dad said it was okay if I moved back here with you and him. He said he would call you. I'm sorry for the surprise. I thought you knew. And I would have called, but it's just, it's been a little crazy with packing and everything lately. "

Jamie was rambling again. Tyler and Caleb were both really good at reading people and both of them could tell that there was something Jamie was not saying, something she was hiding. They could also tell that she didn't want to talk about it. They would let it go for the moment. Jamie was home and they would focus on that. They were both happy to see her, especially Tyler who had missed his little sister immensely.

"Why don't we get some of the boys to take your bags up to your room?" Tyler suggested.

"About that, who are the kids drinking beer in the living room?" Jamie wondered.

"Beer? Who has beer?" Caleb asked. Obviously he was not happy to hear the news about the younger boys and was not aware that they had gained access to alcohol under his watch.

"Some dumbass red-head kid. I dunno." Jamie assumed they knew what was going on. Just proves that assuming makes an ass of you and me.

"Clyde!" Tyler screeched. The boy came stumbling into the room only moments later. "Have you been drinking?"

"Yeah." Clyde looked completely unapologetic as though it was perfectly understandable for someone who couldn't have been a day older than fourteen to be drinking in the middle of the afternoon.

"'Yeah?'" Caleb repeated, ready to lose his cool. He never lost his cool.

"You said to help ourselves to whatever was in the refrigerator. We thought it was okay," Clyde said in his defense.

Caleb and Tyler looked at one another and exchanged a glance of understanding. "Reid," they both sighed.

"Go made yourselves a pot of coffee or something. And tell anyone who isn't drinking to come in here," Caleb—a natural born leader—ordered. Clyde obeyed and exited the room promptly before Tyler or Caleb had time to lecture him.

"Freshmen from the swim team. Only five made the cut this year. The coach asked Caleb and me to baby sit them while we work on a project for our Calculus class today," Tyler explained as they waited for the remaining sober freshmen to arrive before them.

A few moments later, three boys seemed to appear out of nowhere. "You three do me a favor and take the bags from Jamie's car and put them upstairs in the room next to Reid's." Tyler grabbed Jamie's keys out of her hand and tossed them to one of the boys who promptly turned to leave.

"Careful with my new paint job!" Jamie called after them.

Jamie turned her attention to Caleb and her brother. "Reid's room? Since when does Reid have a room in our house?"

"He and Pogue both do. They stay here most of the time since we moved out of the dorms earlier this semester and since Dad isn't home most of the time. Reid hates to be home too much and Pogue has a new baby brother keeping him up at night at home," Tyler explained.

Tyler, Reid, Pogue, and Caleb were like brothers: best friends who drove each other crazy at times. All of their families were close. Their dads had been friends as kids. They had been friends since before Jamie was born and had all always been a big part of Jamie's life.

Jamie had never had many friends in Ipswich. Mostly she knew Tyler's friends. She'd been quiet and shy. The other kids feared what they didn't know; they didn't know Jamie, not really. With the rumors of witchcraft that surrounded her family, everyone assumed and speculated about Jamie without ever getting to know what she was really like.

When Jamie's parents got divorced, her mom moved the two of them to Miami. Jamie's next door neighbor taught her that in their neighborhood, make-up, hair dye, designer clothes, a wonder bra, and some attitude equaled instant popularity. Three years had changed a lot about Jamie. She could hardly even remember the girl she used to be.


	2. Chapter 2

Jamie was in her old room putting her things away when she heard a knock coming from the bedroom across the hall. She went to the door to see what was going on. No one had lived there since hers and Tyler's grandmother when she was a little girl and her grandmother was sick. Jamie's dad, Glenn, had to take care of her until she died when Jamie was four.

The door to the room across the hall was open. There was a teenage boy with long blonde hair down to his extremely broad shoulders. He was wearing a leather bike jacket and gloves and a pair of very nicely fitting jeans with boots. "Pogue Parry," Jamie said with a smile.

Pogue turned around to see a gorgeous girl standing in front of Jamie's room but had no idea who she was. She looked like one of the girls Reid would bring home—pierced and in a pair of jeans and a very small tank top. But how did she know him? Did they go to school together? He tried to picture her in the school uniform but still had no idea who she was.

"Long time no see." Jamie looked into Pogue's gold eyes and realized that he had no idea who she was. "Big Brother said you were staying here these days," she said, giving him the biggest hint she could.

"Jamie? Jamie Sims?" Pogue was completely shocked. There was no way that this girl could be Tyler's sister. Miami had been exceedingly great to her.

"Actually its Jamie Wheeler now," Jamie corrected. It wasn't a big deal that the boys called her Sims—her father's name—but to the rest of the world, she was Jamie Wheeler and was no longer connected to the families of Ipswich that were rumored to have magical powers.

"Okay." Pogue was curious as to why Jamie had changed her name, but decided not to press the matter. "So, what are you doing here?" He moved closer and wrapped his arms around the girl who was now all grown up.

"Have you not talked to Tyler or Caleb yet?" Jamie asked. She figured that they would have told him she was back.

"They aren't here. They left a note saying they were taking the freshmen back to the school for a while," Pogue explained.

"Well, looks like we'll be roommates. I'm moving back home for a while. Isn't that great?" Jamie had a great big smile on her face. She seemed truly excited to be moving home. She seemed to have everyone fooled.

"You're moving back? That's amazing! I have to head back out to pick up my girlfriend, but I'll see you when I get back and we can catch up."

"You and Kate still together?" Jamie loved Pogue's girlfriend Kate. She'd always been there to sort of take Jamie under her wing, so to say. She was one of the only girls Jamie had been friends with before she moved.

Not only was Kate from one of the wealthiest families in Massachusetts, but she was gorgeous and sweet too. Her family had money and power, which tended to equal snobs for children. But it wasn't that way with Kate. Everyone loved her. She had a great sense of humor, a great smile (and she was always smiling), and a big heart. Sure, she had her diva moments, but mostly it was when she and Pogue were fighting.

"Yeah. It'll have been four years next month. It's great to see you." Pogue placed a brotherly kiss on top of Jamie's head before walking away. Jamie watched out the window of her room as Pogue jumped on a nice gray and black bike that looked almost knew.

Pogue sure had changed a lot since Jamie had moved. He used to always be clad in a Caleb-inspired preppy wardrobe with hair longer than Caleb's, but still relatively short. He tried hard to be as much like Caleb as possible. But she'd always had a feeling that Pogue wouldn't be as up-tight as Caleb seemed to be most of the time. Pogue was too much of a free spirit. When they were little Pogue used to love to run anywhere and everywhere. He'd told her once that one day he would just start running and he wasn't going to stop until he had broken free of Ipswich and the hold it seemed to have on their families.

The white-blonde boy standing in Jamie's doorway pulled her away from her thoughts. "I heard a rumor that the prodigal daughter had returned."

Jamie turned around and ran to the boy throwing her arms around him in the biggest hug she could muster. "Reid!" she exclaimed. She didn't ever want to let go of Reid.

"You look amazing Jamikens," Reid said softly as he hugged her. Normally Reid would greet anyone with a sarcastic comment and a high five. But Jamie had never been just anyone to him. It wasn't romantic or anything. It was just that for some reason, Jamie and Reid had never been able to figure out the line between best friends and brother and sister. They weren't either really. Tyler had been Reid's best friend their whole lives. Reid had his own big sister.

But Jamie and Reid had always been close. Even though Jamie had always been the sweet, quiet, and shy kid, she'd always understood Reid—the rogue, the rebel, and the wild card of the group of friends—better than anyone. She didn't talk down to him (even though she was the smartest person any of them had ever met) like most people did when he pulled pranks on his friends and teachers. She accepted him as he was. She even seemed to like the way he was. She found him entertaining. And Reid—who normally didn't open up to anyone—had always been inclined to talk with Jamie. They didn't just chat like he did with most people; they really talked about what was going on.

At the same time, Reid had always been protective of Jamie like she was his own sister. When she was little Reid would stop by the house every morning so he could walk her to school with Tyler. When Jamie was teased at school, Reid, always up for a good fight, was the one who defended her. Tyler had always been right there with him, but had always been there to back Reid up, not start the fight himself. Tyler was still like that. When Jamie was twelve and her parents were in the middle of their divorce Reid was the one to set them straight on the fact that Jamie could hear them fighting down the hall from her bedroom at night. He was also the one she would cry to on the phone for hours at night. She figured Tyler had enough to deal with going through the divorce himself, and Reid was the only other person she was comfortable talking to about the hardship.

"I've missed you so much, Reid." Jamie kissed Reid on the cheek. She'd been right. He had hardly changed at all. If it was possible, his hair was actually lighter. His muscles were certainly more defined, though he'd always be considered on the lanky side. He was no bigger around than Jamie herself was. But he stood a good ten to twelve inches taller than she did. He was almost Caleb's height. But his eyes were exactly the same. Jamie used to get so lost in those eyes. She would just stare at them for hours.

"Are you going to tell me what on Earth you're doing back in Ipswich?" Reid asked. He walked over and sat on the bed by the window. Jamie sat next to him. She should have expected Reid wouldn't return her sentiments. Reid would never admit to missing someone; it would be like admitting that he needed someone other than himself.

"Long story," Jamie told him. She didn't want to go into details, even with Reid. And she knew he was only asking because Tyler must have asked him to. She was able to read people as well as her brother and she knew he could tell there was more to her story than she was sharing.

"I have time," Reid retorted. Tyler had, in fact, called him to let him know that Jamie was there. And, in fact, had mentioned that he thought there was something Jamie was hiding about her return. From what Tyler had told Reid, he was a little worried about Jamie too.

"Reid…I just…not now. Okay?" It was obvious Reid knew there was something she wasn't saying. She wouldn't degrade their friendship by lying to him. She would tell him eventually. But at the moment, she didn't even want to think about it.

"How about dinner then?" Reid suggested. "Tyler and Caleb are still on freshmen duty and Pogue is out with Kate. It's going to be late when they get home. We could go to Nicky's and grab a bite. We can catch up."

Jamie hadn't even thought about Nicky's in so long. Reid used to take her there all the time. They would go and find a table in the back corner where they could talk if one of them had something on their mind or they would play pool just to pass the time when they were bored. Jamie loved to watch Reid play pool. He was really good.

"Sounds great," Jamie said with a smile. She stood up and walked to the closet to grab a sweater and then slipped it over her small tank top. She pulled the ponytail holder from her hair and her curls fell in waves between her shoulder-blades. She put on the same pair of black pumps she'd been wearing when she arrived in town and took the cell phone from the night table and stuck it in her back pocket. "Ready?" she asked.

Reid sat on the bed watching Jamie get ready. There was no denying she had grown even more beautiful than he had thought she was as a young teenager. She had finally started to worry about her appearance it looked like. The make-up, the dark hair, and the expensive clothes were three traits the Jamie he knew would never have had. The biggest difference, though, to Reid was that the new Jamie, the one standing in front of him pulling on a sweater, had more confidence in her little finger than the old Jamie, the girl who Reid was fairly sure he would never be seeing again, had in her entire body. He was happy for her. And the piercing in her nose and eyebrow and the one in her belly button that he'd just seen a glimpse of when she was putting the sweater on made him wonder what other secrets she was hiding on that golden goddess-like body…

Wait! What? What was he thinking? Reid quickly dismissed the thought from his head. It was Jamie. He couldn't think of her like that. He mentally scolded himself for the images he'd just been imagining. Jamie Sims would never be "hot." She would always just be…Jamikens.

Reid immediately stood, following Jamie downstairs. She grabbed her keys from the kitchen counter, remembering that Tyler had mentioned that Reid still had no interest in owning a car for some reason. Reid silently followed her out to her car.


	3. Chapter 3

Jamie thought back to the last night she'd been in Nicky's. It was the night she'd told Reid that she was moving. She was late to meet him so she ran as fast as her thirteen-year-old legs would carry her. Reid was already inside when she arrived to the bar. The lights were dim, as always, and the smoke was so thick that she could hardly make Reid out as he stood by a pool table with his best friend other than Caleb, Pogue, and of course Tyler, Aaron Abbots. Jamie always chuckled to herself when she saw Reid and Aaron together. They were so much alike, and yet, they looked complete opposites.

Reid had watched Jamie come in that night. He knew when she'd called him that morning and asked him to meet her there that something was up. He figured that she was having problems with her parents again. She was always fighting with them because of the divorce. He knew that even though she would never admit it, the divorce was tearing her up inside. But when Reid saw the look in Jamie's eyes as she'd walked through the crowd of Nicky's that night, he had known that what she'd wanted to talk about was bigger than her parents fighting all the time. He knew he was going to lose her.

Jamie felt Reid's hand on her shoulder and snapped back to the present. Nicky's hadn't changed at all. The same smoke, the same smell of alcohol, and even the same people hanging around. She saw Aaron—who had only gotten hotter with time—at a booth in the back of the bar with a red-headed girl who had skin more translucent than Reid if it was possible. Reid led her to a table by the fooz-ball tables and didn't even look in Aaron's direction. Jamie thought that they must have been in yet another fight. They were always fighting. Jamie figured they were both too stubborn for their own good.

"You want something to eat?" Reid asked her. She was being really quiet something was on her mind—most likely why she was home.

"No." Jamie grabbed a lighter and a cigarette from her purse.

"Those things can kill you, you know," Reid said with his classically Reid smirk. He loved to be a wise-ass.

"We all have to die sometime. Besides, it isn't like I haven't seen you light up at a time or two," Jamie retorted. Reid blushed at being caught. He was unaware Jamie had seen him smoke before. He had always at least tried to be a semi-good influence on Jamie…or at least not a bad influence.

"But I guess for you it's all of the fun with none of the danger." Jamie looked Reid in the eyes, hoping for some sort of hint as to what he was thinking. All she saw was confusion and fear.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Reid was completely caught off guard. Jamie couldn't know, could she? He had to try hard to keep his voice calm. He was usually quick to give in to his emotions, but he knew that the only way to have this conversation was to try to stay calm like Caleb always did. Caleb was much better at it.

"I'm not stupid Reid. I know about you and Tyler and Caleb and Pogue. I know about the families."

"What do you know?" Reid didn't know what to say. He searched Jamie's face for some sort of answers but saw nothing.

"Everything." Jamie was very matter-of-fact. "I know it all. The rumors, the truth, the history. I've done my research and I know everything."

"When did you find out?" Reid was speaking softly now. No one was supposed to know about their families. Sure, there had been rumors surrounding the families for years, rumors of witchcraft, but none of the rumors were true.

"When I was ten," she admitted. "I'd heard the rumors. Those rumors were my whole life. I was ridiculed for them for as long as I can remember. Hell, that's why I had my last name changed after the divorce, when I moved to Miami.

"I wanted to know the truth about my family. I did the research. I watched my dad, all of the dads, and researched the rumors on the internet and at the library. I put two and two together.

"When Caleb's mom came to visit my mom and me in Miami a few months back, at the start of the semester, I over-heard her talking to my mom. They were talking about what happened with Chase. And they talked about how that was the real reason for the divorce. My mom was tired of my dad having the secret life, having to live in fear of the world discovering the secrets of the covenant."

"You never said anything before. Why?" Reid couldn't even think straight.

"I figured that you would tell me if you wanted me to know. Besides, I never really knew for sure, not until a few months ago." Jamie shrugged. She couldn't think of anything better to do at the moment. It wasn't exactly how she'd planned to tell Reid that she knew his secret, but with everything going on in her head, she just let it slip out sort of.

"Is that why you came home? Because you finally knew the truth for sure?"

"No."


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Thanks to everyone who has sent me some awesome reviews! PLEASE keep them coming! The only way I'm going to make these things better is to know what I'm doing wrong.

Reid wasn't hungry anymore. He should have guessed that Jamie would figure everything out. She always seemed to have his number and stay one step ahead of him. Besides, she was unbelievably smart. She had skipped two grades, meaning that at sixteen, she was going to graduate that spring along with her brother and his friends. Now the question was did he tell the other boys that Jamie knew their secret?

Reid's cell phone vibrated on the table, breaking the tension between him and Jamie. "Yeah man." He paused to listen to his friend. "Uh. Dunno." Another pause. "Yeah. Sure." He flipped the phone closed again.

"Anything important?" Jamie put out her cigarette.

"Nah. There going to be a party at the Dells later. Do you want to go?" Reid decided ignoring Jamie's admissions would be the way to deal with the situation at the moment.

"Yeah. Whatever." Jamie sounded so distant. Reid was beginning to really worry about Jamie. She had been somewhere else completely ever since he'd seen her at the house. "Can we get a beer or something?"

"You drink?" Reid didn't realize how much Jamie had changed. She was becoming more and more like him every second he spent talking to her.

"Yeah. And don't pretend like you don't drink. I know for a fact that you do."

"Sure I do. But you've just changed so much. It's hard to think of you as someone like me."

"Yeah, well, I grew up. Deal." She sounded so cold. She sounded so unlike the Jamie he'd always known. Something was really bothering her and he wanted so badly to know what it was.

"What's with the attitude Jamie?" Reid was really missing the old Jamie. She'd always talked to him and confided in him.

"Why can't you just accept that I'm not the same person I was before I moved?" Jamie's mind was flooded with different emotions, different thoughts. She felt like she couldn't breathe.

"I need some air," Jamie announced. She stood up and bolted for the door.

Reid ran after Jamie. When he caught up to her she was by the front steps of the bar, holding herself up on the stair railing. She turned to look at Reid and he saw that she was crying hysterically.

Jamie's eyes were bloodshot and swollen. Her face was red. But she couldn't stop herself, the tears just kept coming. "My mom left," she whispered in Reid's direction.

Reid couldn't believe his ears. He walked over and held onto Jamie as tightly as he could. She was shaking. "What do you mean your mom left?"

"That's it. That's why I came home. I woke up the other day and she was gone. Everything had been packed and moved." Jamie tried to wipe at the tears but they wouldn't stop. "My mom left because of me."

"Your mom left because she's a fucking coward! She can't handle her own life. Don't let her make you think it's your fault Jamie. She's a bitch, plain and simple. She always has been." Reid had completely forgotten about his own dilemma in that moment. His heart broke into a million pieces seeing Jamie like that.

Jamie's mom was never Reid's favorite person. She was always putting Jamie down or making Jamie hate herself more than she already did. But Jamie had always been totally loyal to her mom. Reid had no idea why.

"Please don't tell anyone," Jamie pleaded.

"I don't Jamie." Reid sighed and ran a hand through his white-blonde mess of hair. "Tyler is really worried about you. I don't want to lie to him."

"Then don't. Just tell him that I'm okay. Tell him that he doesn't need to worry about me."

"You know he's just going to call your dad to find out, if he hasn't already," Reid reasoned. Honestly, he couldn't lie to Tyler. He couldn't lie to anyone for that matter. He was a terrible liar.

"I just, I don't want to talk about it really. You know? If you have to tell him, you'll make sure he doesn't tell the whole world like he usually does?" Jamie compromised. She knew Reid was right. Tyler probably had already called their dad.

"Yeah. I'll make sure the world doesn't find out." Reid wished Jamie would talk about it. She was always doing that: bottling up her emotions until they just about killed her from the inside out. But he knew that if she didn't want to talk about it, she was stubborn enough not to talk about it.

"I think I want to skip the party tonight," Jamie decided. She wasn't in a party mood anymore. She just wanted to go back to the house and go to sleep. Maybe she could just sleep the rest of her life away.

"Yeah, me either."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Seriously, thanks so much to everyone reviewing! Totally an ego boost! ******** Also, I know this chapter is really short, but I'm hoping to get to some longer ones in the next few days. I've had to work though and you just have to bear with me until the weekends. Thanks!**

Tyler and Pogue were at the house when Reid and Jamie arrived home. It was late, and Jamie was hoping that they would be in bed already. But wishes don't always come true.

"She left?" Tyler exclaimed as Jamie walked in the front door. He was making a bee-line for his baby sister. "How could you not tell me she left? You said you came back because of some guy!"

"I never said it was because of some guy." Jamie threw her bag and keys down and flopped onto one of the uncomfortable formal couches in the living room. She studied the tacky material it was made of and decided it was definitely time to suggest her dad hire an interior decorator, pronto.

"Heartbreak? Heartbreak? Jamie, she left you in the middle of the night!" Tyler was now pacing the living room in front of where Jamie was lying on the couch. Reid had silently sat in a chair across from Jamie.

"Yeah, she left Tyler! What do you want me to say? It did break my heart!" Jamie screamed. She sat back up and pulled her hair into a ponytail to try to cool down.

"Jamie, why didn't you tell me?" Tyler just couldn't understand what was going on with his little sister. He heard horror stories of the things she did in Miami. She was caught smoking, drinking, hanging out with creepy guys all the time, and was always in trouble at home and school. She'd become a smart ass. She had been grounded for staying out for days at a time without calling more than once. And ever since she'd been back, his sweet, shy, polite, and adorable little sister had been rude, deceitful, and more than a little moody.

"Because Tyler, this is hard for me! My mom left me without even saying goodbye! And worst of all, it was my fault she left." Jamie couldn't stand to have that conversation with Tyler. It was too hard. At least with Reid, he and his mom didn't get along well. Tyler and his mom were always hanging out together, even though she couldn't stand his dad anymore. She was even nice to Jamie when she saw her. His mom was so great. How could Tyler possibly understand what Jamie was going through?

Jamie stood up and walked upstairs to her room. She was through fighting with Tyler for the night.

"Jamie," Tyler called as she walked away. She didn't acknowledge him at all. "Jamie!" he shouted louder. He wasn't mad at Jamie, he was just worried. He had always worried about Jamie. Mostly, it was caused by the way her mom treated her. He hated when her mom would tell Jamie how everything wrong in their lives was Jamie's fault. She would make so many jokes at Jamie's expense. Normally, it wouldn't have been so bad, but Jamie had always been so sensitive. Besides, she'd never had an ounce of confidence—at least not until she'd moved to Miami—and her mom only made matters worse.

At school, Jamie had always been picked on by the other kids. They had all heard the rumors about the families, that they were witches. The thing was that everyone assumed that when the stories talked of witches, it was talking about the women of the families. Jamie was teased, the victim of countless practical jokes, and generally hated by everyone at school. Tyler tried to look out for her—and he always worried about her—but he couldn't always be there to save her.

This time, with Jamie's mom leaving, he was determined things would be different. He was going to help her through this. He had to.

Tyler didn't waste any time making his way to Jamie's room. She had already shut and locked the door. He decided to wait for her to cool down some before trying to talk to her again. He would wait until morning. He headed downstairs, back to his own bedroom.

Jamie paced back and forth in her bedroom. She didn't know why she was acting this way. Why couldn't she just talk to Tyler the way she used to? Why couldn't she be more like the Jamie she used to be? Well, a little more like her at least. She didn't miss the ridicule or the way she felt about herself. She hated the way she had looked when she was younger. But she did miss the relationships she had had back then. She missed having Tyler there anytime she'd needed him. She missed staying at Reid's house for the night when she couldn't stay at her own.

It was too much for Jamie to think about for one night. She was exhausted. She pulled on her pajamas and curled up on her bed to go to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

Pogue was so tired after his night out with Kate. They had gone to dinner and then to the party down at the Dells. He was just getting back to the house at two that morning. As he made his way up the stairs, he heard banging from Jamie's room. What was that? It sounded like she was throwing things at the walls—large things at that. Was she rearranging the room or something?  
Pogue knocked on the door to the room but there was no answer. He tried the knob, but it was locked. Pogue called to Jamie but again, there was no answer. He wanted to find out what was going on. He stared at the lock and watched as it turned to the unlocked position. He opened the door and saw Reid opening the door to the bathroom between his and Jamie's rooms. Jamie was still in bed asleep but the furniture in her room was flying all over the place.  
Reid had heard the noises too. His room was next to Jamie's. He'd thought that she was knocking on the wall to wake him up. But when Reid had opened the door to the bathroom he and Jamie shared he saw that he'd been very wrong. Furniture was flying all over the room and Jamie was still in bed asleep. Pogue was just opening the bedroom door and looked over at Reid.  
Jamie shot out of the bed and looked in Reid's direction. In the split second after she opened her eyes, Reid saw them fade from a deep shade of black to their usual shade of green in a flash. He was momentarily stunned, frozen to his spot in the doorway. But when he saw Pogue staring at Jamie with a confused expression and Jamie staring at him with a look of horror, he recovered quickly.  
"Jamie, what was that?" Pogue asked.  
Jamie was silently looking at Pogue, wondering if he had seen the same thing she was fairly sure Reid just had. She opened her mouth, trying to speak, but the words just weren't there. She wasn't sure how to explain everything to him.  
"Jamie, why didn't you tell me?" Reid walked over and sat on the edge of Jamie's bed. Pogue sat in the chair that was now sitting by the door, though it had previously been at her desk on the other side of the room.  
"You won't tell anyone, will you?" she inquired as she looked back and forth between the two boys. How could she have let this happen?  
"What's going on?" Pogue asked. He had seen Jamie's eyes when she'd woken up. He knew that there was something weird happening.  
"It's sort of a long story," Jamie answered him.  
"Why don't we start from the beginning?" Pogue suggested. He had to know what was going on. Was Jamie really one of them? Did she even know about them? There were so many questions that he needed answers to.  
"The beginning? This is the beginning. It just started happening a few weeks ago. I would wake up from a dream and things would be floating around my room like they were tonight. Or I would get mad and something close by would smash into pieces even though there was nothing touching it.  
"My mom freaked out. She told me that it was all happening over again. She said she had hoped that with me, things would be different. But she was wrong."  
"What do you mean? She always knew you would be…like us?" Reid asked.  
"She was afraid I would be. Apparently, her family wasn't exactly normal either. She told me that her family had been involved in the Salem trials too. But everyone assumed it was just a legend that her family was…different. No one had shown any signs of having The Power for hundreds of years now. But when she married my dad, the bloodlines crossed…and apparently here I am."  
"And that's why your mom left," Reid finished for her.  
"Wait. Your mom left? What are you talking about?" Pogue asked. He didn't even know where to start to comprehend all of this. Could Jamie really be one of them?  
"It's why I moved home. My mom left in the middle of the night. She took all of her things and disappeared. I haven't seen her in two weeks. I called Daddy but he said he hadn't heard from her. He insisted that I come home to finish out my last semester of school. He didn't want me to be there with—or without—her anymore," Jamie explained.  
"Does anyone else know?" Reid asked.  
"No. I mean, a few of my friends were around when things would break or something else strange would happen, but I always had some great explanation that would make perfect sense. No one ever questioned it."  
"So, you're really one of us?" Reid asked, trying to understand.  
"Not one of you. It's different with me. The Power is just something I have. It isn't a part of who I am the way it is with all of you now that you've ascended. I can't do the things you guys can. But it doesn't weaken me every time I use it either."  
"You know about us?" Pogue was so lost. He was beginning to feel like he was the last to know everything. Reid hadn't seemed at all surprised that Jamie knew all about them and their secrets.  
"She knows everything," Reid told him. He didn't take his eyes off of Jamie. He was still in disbelief of everything that was happening.  
"But how?"  
"Because, Pogue, I lived here for thirteen years. I knew all of the rumors about the families. It wasn't that hard to figure things out. I saw more of what went on around here than anyone seemed to give me credit for."  
"We should tell Tyler and Caleb," Pogue decided. Tyler was her brother. He deserved to know. And Caleb, well, Caleb always seemed to know what to do when everyone else was still figuring out what was going on.  
"Not tonight," Reid argued. "It's late. We'll tell them in the morning."


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: As always, thanks so much to those of you who have been reviewing! The reviews have been so great! Keep 'em coming!**

Jamie woke up early the next morning. She went for a run to clear her head. There was too much going on to even keep the thoughts all straight.

Jamie had made it almost a mile from the house when she saw Caleb and a girl with long blonde hair drinking coffee on a park bench. She assumed the girl was Sarah, the girlfriend Caleb's mom had mentioned when she'd visited Jamie and her mom in Miami a few months back. She was just as pretty as Jamie thought she would be. Caleb deserved someone like her.

"Jamie, hey!" Caleb called to her, waving for her to come and talk to them for a minute. "Jamie, meet my girlfriend Sarah," Caleb introduced them. "Sarah, this is Jamie. She's the one I told you about, Tyler's little sister."

"Nice to meet you," Sarah said. She smiled and held her hand out to Jamie. She was very polite and proper. She and Caleb _were_ perfect for each other.

"You too."

"Tyler called me a few minutes ago. He wants me to meet him at your house later. Is everything okay?" Caleb asked. He knew it wasn't. He knew whatever Tyler wanted to talk about had to do with Jamie. But Caleb wanted to give Jamie the chance to talk to him before Tyler did. He wanted to hear her side of the story.

"I guess. It's just sort of complicated," Jamie down-played the situation. She didn't know Sarah at all and didn't want to discuss the situation in front of her. She knew Sarah was aware of Caleb, Tyler, Reid, and Pogue's _special-ness_ but didn't want Sarah to know about her own secrets. "I'm sure everything is fine. Anyway, I still have about half a mile to go but I'll see back at the house later, okay?"

"Sure," Caleb agreed reluctantly.

"Bye." Jamie waved to Sarah. Sarah smiled and waved back as Jamie continued with her run.

"I thought that you said she was turning into Reid," Sarah reminded Caleb. "She seemed perfectly nice to me."

"She is nice. She's just…different." Caleb sighed and ran a hand through his thick, black hair. "She's changed."

"How do you mean?" Sarah couldn't imagine what someone like Caleb could mean by _different_. He was plenty different himself. Could he mean that she was just like him and his friends?

"She grew up here. Her parents divorced three years ago, when she was thirteen. She moved with her mom to Miami. Now that she's back, she doesn't even seem like the same person. We didn't even recognize her yesterday."

"She grew up. People do that. I'm sure it's just normal," Sarah assured her boyfriend. "She was in a new place and had to change to adapt. It's part of being a teenager."

"She used to be so shy and quiet and sweet. Now she's so tough. She doesn't want to tell us anything anymore. She used to talk to us about everything. She's so un-Jamie-like now."

"What happened? Why did she move back?" Sarah wanted to know.

"Tyler says her mom left. Jamie woke up and she was gone. It's been two weeks and no one has seen or heard from her mom. Her dad made her come back. But when Jamie got here, she looked us right in the face and told us it was because her heart was broken by some boy. I don't get how Jamie of all people could lie to us like that."

"Caleb, her mom left her. She isn't being tough. She's hurt. She was supposed to be able to trust her mom. She just wants to protect her heart from being hurt like that again by someone else that she trusts. Give her some time. I'm sure she'll come around."

"Maybe you're right. We're all just really worried about her."

"You better drop me off back at the dorms so you can head over to Tyler's house," Sarah told him. Caleb kissed her and they climbed into his Mustang.

When Jamie arrived home she saw Tyler's Hummer, Pogue's bike, and Caleb's Mustang parked outside. That meant everyone was there; they were waiting to talk to her.

Jamie opened the front door, but before she could get a foot inside, someone pushed her back out. It was Tyler. "Let's take a walk," Tyler suggested.

"I just got back from a three mile run," Jamie reminded him.

"Jamie, please, just go somewhere with me so we can talk," Tyler pleaded.

"Give me fifteen minutes to get a shower," Jamie agreed. She really wasn't in the mood to discuss anything with her brother at the moment. But when she'd looked into Tyler's eyes, she had seen something that made her feel like she was thirteen again, like her life was simple again, and like her heart had never been broken before. She had missed that feeling and didn't want it to end.

Jamie came running down the stairs fifteen minutes later, showered and changed. She threw her keys at her brother, who was waiting at the bottom of the stairs for her. "You're driving," she called as she passed by him.

"Not your car," he contended.

"What's wrong with my car?" she wanted to know. She stopped by the door to wait for his answer.

"It's got a pink steering wheel cover, pink seat covers, and a pink _fury_ mirror cover. It's a total chick car. I'm not driving it."

"Fine. We can take your precious Hummer," Jamie relented. She couldn't count how many times in the last six months Tyler had called her and talked about absolutely nothing but his beloved Hummer. He was obsessed with that car.

"Where are we going?" Tyler asked.

"Starbucks. I'm totally craving a mocha latte."


	8. Chapter 8

Starbucks was packed but Jamie felt better just being there, smelling the familiar, Heavenly scent of the coffee she knew and loved so well. Jamie was positive there was some sort of highly addictive drug in Starbucks' coffee because she was hooked. She found a table while Tyler ordered the drinks.

By the time Tyler got the drinks and turned around to try to find Jamie in the crowd, Jamie was at a table in the back of the coffee shop sitting next to Aaron Abbots laughing and doing a damn good job of flirting in Tyler's opinion. What was Aaron doing talking to Jamie? Sure, he had been one of Aaron's best friends at one point in time, but after everything that had happened, Aaron should have known to leave Tyler's sister alone. She was off limits. Aaron was a player and would hurt any girl he was with. Tyler wouldn't let that happen to Jamie.

"Tyler, why didn't you tell me that Jamie was coming back into town?" Aaron asked as Tyler set the two drinks on the table and sat across from Jamie and Aaron.

"It was sort of sudden," Tyler said coldly.

"Aaron was just asking me if we all wanted to go to his party tonight," Jamie informed her brother. "Doesn't that sound like fun?" Jamie was smiling. She was smiling for real, not one of her fake smiles she tried to pass off as real. Tyler hadn't seen his sister smile like that in a long time. He couldn't ruin her happy moment.

"Yeah, it sounds great," he lied. Aaron had a spiteful look on his face as he smiled at Tyler. "We'll see you there," Tyler told Aaron, making sure Aaron realized that for now, he wanted to be alone with Jamie.

Aaron took the hint. "Good. I'll call you later with the details," Aaron told Jamie. He took her hand and kissed it lightly. She giggled and smiled her most flirtatious smile.

"Why didn't you tell me how cool Aaron had turned out?" Jamie asked her brother after Aaron had left. She was watching him from across the room.

"We have bigger things to talk about Jamie."

"Did you talk to Reid and Pogue?" Jamie asked him, the real smile fading back to the fake one Tyler knew all too well. He hated that this was killing Jamie. He hated that she didn't trust him enough to come to him when she needed someone to lean on.

"Yeah, and they told me everything. Jamie, why didn't you call and tell me? I could have been there for you."

"Tyler, you couldn't be there for me. And I don't blame you for that. Your life was here. You had Daddy, Caleb, Reid, Pogue, school, the covenant. You were needed here.

"My life was in Miami. I had my mom, my friends, my school, my boyfriend. Ipswich wasn't a part of my life anymore. It was my past. I made it that way. I was okay with it."

"But Jamie, I could have helped you. I could have talked you through all of that. I've been there before. It's scary and it's confusing and you shouldn't have had to deal with it alone," Tyler argued.

"But I did do it on my own, Tyler. I dealt with it all on my lonesome and I was okay. I was scared and confused at first, sure. I hated this secret my mom had kept from me.

"I was upset and mad and terrified. But I'm past all of that now. I'm okay with all of this. I think it's kind of cool actually," Jamie explained. "That's the way I am now Tyler. I'm sorry if it bothers you that I've changed some since I moved, but that's not going to change the fact that I _am_ different than I was when I was thirteen. I've learned to get through things on my own."

"I'm just worried about you Jamie. You may have changed, but you're still my baby sister," Tyler told her. Tyler was looking at Jamie with a truly concerned look in his eyes. He was speaking so softly. She thought about how much of a contrast the Tyler sitting in front of her was to the Tyler everyone else usually saw. Most people saw Tyler as Reid's trusty sidekick. He wanted so badly to be a rebel like Reid. He got into fights and had the occasional beer. But that Tyler could sit in front of someone the way he was with Jamie at that moment was what made him stand apart from the Reids of the world. Tyler had a compassionate side that Reid would never have. When Tyler looked into Jamie's eyes, she saw a little boy who wanted to be just like his best friend, not a rogue teenager who was constantly getting in trouble with whichever authority figure he could manage to piss off at the moment.

Reid would open up to Jamie occasionally, but he would never have Tyler's compassion for people. He would never tell someone he loved them or missed them. Jamie figured it was because he so rarely heard those sentiments directed at him. His family seemed to be the definition of dysfunction. His parents hated one another, but were too ashamed to get a divorce. So, in private, they had separate bedrooms and fought constantly. In public they managed to ignore one another completely. As for Reid's sister, she was emancipated when she was sixteen and no one had heard a word from or about her since. They didn't know if she was in school, or married, or had kids, or even if she was alive. Really it was no wonder Reid was the way he was. He was just a product of his environment. Jamie loved him all the same, but he and Tyler really weren't as alike as people thought.

"That's the point Tyler. I'm not you're baby sister anymore. I grew up. I'm not the same quiet, shy, awkward, follow-orders-without-question kid I was when I left."

"I've noticed. I know you grew up. Everyone does. But you became a whole new person. I feel like I don't even know you anymore. What happened in Miami that made you so hard?"

"Tyler, I didn't have much when I moved to Miami. I love my mom, but she was undependable and I knew that just as well as everyone else did. People thought I was blind to the things she did, to what a horrible mom she was. I wasn't. I just accepted her for who she was. She was still my mom. I didn't have any friends there. I didn't even have any friends of my own here. Everyone I knew was a friend of yours who would have seen me the same way everyone else did had it not been for you; I would have been invisible to them. I changed because I had to. You had your life here. I wanted nothing more than to escape from here. I wanted to escape Ipswich and all of the hurt that came with it. I couldn't call you every time someone picked on me at school or a guy I liked didn't like me back. I learned to handle all of it on my own. I'm sorry that you're having trouble accepting that, but it's who I am now. I can only hope that you'll understand that eventually."


	9. Chapter 9

Jamie found Reid as soon as she got back to the house. He was sitting at his computer in his room upstairs. She snaked her arms around his neck from behind and poked her head over his left shoulder. "Give me, like, ten minutes to get ready and let's go get into trouble."

"Tempting. But I promised your brother I would attempt to keep you out of trouble," Reid replied as he pulled Jamie into his lap. "Just out of curiosity, what sort of trouble did you have in mind?" Reid asked with that smirk that let Jamie know he probably wouldn't keep his promise to Tyler.

"Arson, destruction of public property, robbery…you know, the usuals," Jamie teased.

"I always knew you'd grow up to be a bad girl," Reid joked with her.

Jamie arched her eyebrow at him and leaned in to whisper in his ear. "You have no idea how just how bad I can be." With that, Jamie stood up and walked back to her own room, leaving Reid's curiosity sparked.

Back in her own room Jamie slipped out of the jeans and sweatshirt she had worn to get coffee with Tyler and changed into a pair of green cargo pants and denim jacket over a black tank top. She washed her face and did her make up and ran a brush through her hair. She finished the look with a pair of black Converse she had added silver sparkles to. She was ready to go convince Reid to get out with her and have some fun.

"You ready?" she asked as she plopped down on his bed.

"Am I ready for what?" he asked. He stood over her as she lay sideways on his bed. He leaned over her and put his hands on either side of her stomach. She noticed that he was still wearing the pair of black, fingerless gloves she had sent him for his birthday two years earlier. His nails hadn't been black back then, but she liked the look.

"To help me get into all sorts of fun trouble," she answered him matter-of-factly.

"Come on," he agreed with his signature smirk. He grabbed Jamie's hand and helped pull her up. Her shirt slipped up an inch or so in front and he saw the top of a tattoo peering out at him. "Care to tell me what that is?" he asked pointing to the sliver of black.

"What? My tattoo?" Jamie pulled the top of her pants down just far enough so that Reid could see the black circle with the star in it, the pentagram with flames enclosing the circle.

"Is that…"

"A memento of my past," Jamie finished for him. Actually, it was the symbol associated with the covenant of silence, the covenant the Danvers, Parry, Sims, Garwin, and Putnam families created hundreds of years earlier to protect them from the nightmares of the Salem witch trials.

"I like it. Any other piercing or tattoos you're hiding?" Reid wondered.

"I'm guessing you've already seen my navel ring. But you probably haven't seen the dove on my right shoulder or the heart on my left shoulder." She took the denim jacket off and Reid realized that he hadn't even noticed the two tattoos adorning her shoulder blades when he'd first seen her the day before. She'd been a top similar to the one she was currently wearing, but he'd been so happy to see her that he hadn't even paid attention to the artwork.

Sure enough, there was a dove outlined in black and colored-in in gray and white on her right shoulder blade. On the other shoulder blade there was a heart outlined in black and colored-in in pink, bound in silver and gray and black chains with an old-fashioned lock in the middle.

"I get the dove. It stands for peace. But the heart is in chains. It's locked up tight. I don't get that one." Obviously Reid understood that it meant she wanted to protect her heart by keeping everyone out, but he didn't know why someone as amazing as Jamie would want to do that. She had so much to offer the world. She had the biggest heart of anyone he knew.

"I got it after Dylan and me broke up," Jamie told him. "We dated for over a year and I trusted him so much. I thought I had finally found someone to give my heart to. But he broke it. The chains are what keep it together. And they protect it from ever being broken like that again."

"When did you get it?" Reid asked. He had heard her mention some guy named Dylan before, but he had no clue who the boy was.

"Three weeks ago; it was the day after we broke up." Jamie slipped the jacket back on and turned back around to face Reid. He could tell that she was not in a mood to discuss Dylan or whatever had happened with him. He respected that and walked downstairs with her.

"Where are you two headed?" Caleb called from the living room where he and Tyler and Pogue sat watching a movie on the huge TV screen.

"Out," Jamie stated simply. "We'll be back in time for the party. Be ready by eight!" she called back to the boys as she and Reid headed outside to her car.

"What party?" Pogue asked Tyler and Caleb, wondering if either of them had any idea what she was talking about.

"Aaron's party tonight," Tyler answered with a sigh.

"We're going to Aaron's party? Since when?" Caleb wanted to know. They all hated Aaron. They hadn't been friends with Aaron for years. And they wouldn't be caught dead at one of his infamous parties. They were almost always busted up by the cops.

"Since Jamie agreed to go this morning. He was at the coffee shop when we got there and somehow, while I was ordering for us, they became quickly reunited. He was all over her and she didn't seem to mind. She actually likes him. They were flirting right in front of my eyes! But she was so happy. I couldn't tell her about Aaron and Reid and the fight. I couldn't stand to see that smile fade from her face because of something like that. So I told her we would go to the party."

"Jamie and Aaron?" Caleb summarized. "This should be interesting."

"What party?" Reid asked Jamie as they climbed into the car.

"Aaron's party tonight," Jamie answered as she cranked the car and sped out of the driveway. "He asked me to go this morning and I told him we would."

"Why would you do that?"

"Because he's Aaron? And oh my God he got so much hotter! And he was hitting on me. Don't you think that would be awesome? We could all be, like, one happy family," Jamie giggled. Reid hadn't heard Jamie laugh in so long. He, like Tyler that morning, couldn't stand to tell Jamie the truth about Aaron Abbots. He couldn't stand to watch her get hurt anymore than she had been lately. But at the same time, he knew that Aaron would hurt Jamie. He would break her heart like every other girl he had ever been with.

"And where are we going now?" Reid asked, opting to change the subject away from his ex-best friend.

"To play pool at Nicky's. It's the only fun thing to do in this town," Jamie reminded her friend.

"Sounds like a plan to me." Reid spent many of his weekends playing pool at Nicky's.


	10. Chapter 10

Aaron's enormous house was overflowing with students from Spenser Academy—the prep school Tyler, Reid, Pogue, Caleb, Sarah, Kate and Aaron all attended. Jamie had caught a ride with Tyler and Reid. Caleb and Sarah met them there. Kate and Pogue were MIA when their friends arrived though he had promised to meet them there. Sarah said when she'd left them, they were in Sarah and Date's dorm room caught in yet another meaningless fight they would forget about by morning.

Jamie figured it was their loss. She was having a fabulous time. She'd been spotted by Aaron as soon as she'd walked in between Tyler and Reid. He'd pulled her way from them and had introduced her to everyone else there. They did manage to steal a few moments alone, but everyone was talking about Aaron's mystery date and wanted to meet her.

Reid and Tyler saw some friends who they promptly followed outside to the patio. Reid was in an undeniably miserable mood. He needed to hit something—or someone. He needed a good fight.

"Hey, Reid, what's up with you tonight?" his friend Jacob asked him.

"I just gotta get outta here." Reid turned to Tyler. "Tyler, man, let's blow this shit."

"Where's Jamie? I'll tell her we're leaving," Tyler agreed.

"Probably off with Aaron somewhere," Reid mumbled. He couldn't even say the words out loud. Why did he have such a big problem with Jamie hanging out with Aaron? Why couldn't he just let her by happy? It wasn't like Jamie knew about his and Aaron's fallout. And she wasn't even asking him to hang out with Aaron. So what was his big problem?

"You okay man?" Tyler asked. He knew Reid was uncomfortable being back at Aaron's house. But he was even more moody than Tyler had expected.

"Yeah man. I'm just ready to go. I'll meet you at the car." Reid walked away without even looking back once.

Tyler found Jamie inside with Aaron. They were on the dance floor. Jamie was pushed against Aaron with her arms wrapped tightly around his neck. Aaron had the balls to have one hand on Jamie's ass and another pouring a bottle of vodka down her throat.

"Jamie!" Tyler shouted over the music and the crowd. Caleb heard Tyler from where he and Sarah sat on the couches. He was almost instantly at Tyler's side. Pogue had finally arrived and wasn't far behind Tyler and Caleb.

Jamie and Aaron stopped dancing and stared at the trio. "Tyler, hey Big Brother!" Jamie slurred. She momentarily let go of Aaron's neck, but almost fell. Aaron caught her and held her tightly again.

"Hey, easy," Aaron suggested as he smiled at Jamie. He started to kiss her neck as she was laughing uncontrollably.

"Come on. Let's get you home," Caleb said. He walked up to Jamie and tried to move her away from Aaron. But Jamie squirmed away.

"I'm having fun! I'm not ready to go home yet!" Jamie argued. She took another big chug from the almost empty bottle of vodka in Aaron's hand.

"He didn't ask." Reid had appeared out of nowhere. "We're going home."

"Go away! I said I'm staying!" Reid wrapped an arm around Jamie but she limply brushed him off of her.

"The lady has spoken boys," Aaron announced. "Looks like Jamie is staying with me tonight."

"What?" Jamie turned to look at Aaron. "Why would I stay? I'm just not ready to go yet." Where had Aaron gotten the idea that she was going to be spending the night with him?

"Jamie, come on!" Reid ordered. He grabbed her arm to steady her.

"Let go of me Reid Garwin!" Jamie screamed.

"Yeah Garwin. Jamie is staying with me tonight," Aaron cooed. "I promise I'll be good to you," he whispered in Jamie's ear where no one else could hear.

The next thing anyone knew, Jamie's three inch heels were jamming themselves into Aaron's crotch and she spun around to face him. "I am _so_ NOT fucking you Aaron!" Jamie slammed her fist into Aaron's face.

"Way to go Jamikens!" Reid laughed. He held her hand. She spun around towards Reid this time. Again, her fist flew into the air. Reid caught it with his face. Jamie fell to the ground with no one to help balance her.

Suddenly, across the room, a vase shattered on its own and a TV fell from the wall. Tyler looked at his sister. Her eyes were as black as night.

"I think it's time to go boys," Reid said as he threw Jamie over his shoulder and carried her towards the car. As they passed through the door, a window close by burst into a hundred pieces.

"Yeah, definitely time to get her in bed," Pogue added as the friends laid her in the backseat of Tyler's Hummer.


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: I know I've totally been the queen of the short chapters lately, and these next two are REALLY short, I know, but I've been trying to update more often to make up for it. Thanks for the reviews! Keep them coming! Hope you like the story so far!**

It was almost two when Reid carried Jamie up to bed. Tyler was furious and worried so Pogue took him out for drinks to talk. Caleb had to take Sarah back to her dorm and get home to take care of his mom.

Reid had been in Jamie's position before—drunk and unconscious. He went ahead and placed two aspirin and some water on the table by her bed. She would most definitely be feeling the effects of her fun that morning.

Finally, when Jamie was tucked in and asleep, Reid went to his room and threw on a pair of gym shorts and a tee-shirt to sleep in. He laid in bed restlessly for the better part of an hour before he heard Jamie stumbling to the bathroom. Reid started to check on her when he realized she was in his room. She walked to Reid's bed and climbed under the covers with him.

"Please tell me that was just a bad dream," Jamie moaned.

"I'm afraid not Jamikens." Reid stroked Jamie's hair and remembered how much he had missed her. Why couldn't he just tell her that?

"Did I really hit you?"

"And you don't have a horrible left hook either."

"Reid, I'm so sorry!" Jamie whispered.

"No permanent damage," Reid assured her. He laughed off the entire incident.

"I can't believe that Aaron thought I wanted to sleep with him," Jamie laughed softly.

"Why didn't you? I thought that you liked him," Reid reasoned.

"I did. I liked him I mean. But I'm not like that Reid. I'm not one of 'those girls.' I don't sleep around. And just because I like a guy doesn't mean that I'm going to jump into bed with him."

"Why are you in my bed then?" Reid teased her with his oh-so-adorable smirk he was known so well for.

"Because you're safe," Jamie yawned. With that, Jamie was once again asleep.


	12. Chapter 12

"I wanted to kill Aaron," Tyler told Pogue as they sat in the back of Nicky's.

"He has some balls to say that, I admit, but you know that he was only saying it to piss you off," Pogue assured his friend.

"Jamie is my sister! She isn't just any other girl. She's off limits and he knows it. I don't care about the stupid fucking feud he has with Reid. He never should have gone off of Jamie. He's such a fucking asshole!" Tyler took a long sip of his beer. "And why the fuck was she so wasted? I know she's hurting, but he could have gotten herself into a lot of trouble if we hadn't gotten her out of there. She was lucky things weren't worse than they were."

"I'm just glad that everyone else seemed to be too drunk to notice that no one actually smashed the vase, TV, or window. And at least Aaron got what he deserved. I can't believe quiet little Jamie Sims—out Jamie—punched him like that!" Pogue chuckled. Tyler couldn't help but to laugh with him.

Then Tyler thought about his conversation with Jamie that morning—about how she wasn't their Jamie anymore. She was Jamie Wheeler now. She was the wild, rebellious, party girl from Miami whom his dad had told him countless horror stories about over the last three years. They were a lot easier to ignore or deny when he wasn't witnessing them first hand. Was he ready to accept the fact that the girl he used to know was never coming back?

According to their dad Jamie—new Jamie—stayed in trouble pretty much all of the time. No stunt was too daring. Her gym teacher thought that she had transferred schools earlier that year because she had skipped his class every day for the first two weeks of school. She'd been escorted home by the police more than once in the last three years. She was so angry. Even when she was laughing or smiling Tyler could tell she was angry and hurt. She had become almost like a stranger to Tyler. He'd talked to her every week almost for three years, but Tyler was beginning to realize that he didn't know Jamie at all.

"What are you thinking about Man?" Pogue asked after they had sat in silence for almost five minutes while Tyler contemplated his relationship with Jamie.

"Was I a good brother?" he asked finally. "Before Jamie moved, was I good at being her brother? Did I really know her at all?"

"Where is this coming from?" Pogue wondered.

"When Jamie was younger, was she this angry? Did I just not notice it? Did I just casually acknowledge her existence like most people did? She talks about how much she hated Ipswich and how much she used to dream of escape. I never understood why. I was such a damn fool.

"Jamie hasn't changed as much as we think she has. We just never really took the time to pay attention to her before. At least, I didn't."


	13. Chapter 13

Jamie amazed everyone when she woke up at eight the next morning without any signs of a hangover. Unlike her, the boys all had to start their last week of school before Christmas Break. Otherwise, she would have been the only one awake for hours.

"What are you doing today while we all study our asses off for our exams?" Reid asked as Jamie lay covered up in his bed still.

"Please, like you've ever studied a day in your life!" Jamie retorted, throwing a small pillow at him as he worked on tying the tie for his school uniform. "I'm re-decorating for the holidays. I called Daddy before the party last night and he said I was more than welcome to hire a new decorator and get my mom's old furniture out. He says he'll be home by Christmas Eve too."

"You excited to see him?"

"He's my dad. Of course I am. Besides, it's been three years since I saw him last time."

"Oh well. I'm off to school," Reid announced more than a little apathetically.

"Do you want to meet for lunch maybe? The decorator won't be here until one."

"Yeah. Come by the school at eleven," Reid agreed.

"So, you want to tell me why my sister woke up in your bed this morning?" Tyler teased his best friend. He knew Reid wouldn't mess with Jamie; they were just friends. Besides, he would rather see Jamie with Reid than Aaron after what Aaron had said about Jamie the night before.

Reid's cheeks started to glow pink slightly. "I'm safe apparently. That's what she said anyway." Reid knew he would be teased for the rest of his life about that comment. All four boys burst out in laughter.

"Reid The Womanizer is the safest bed she could think of?" Pogue scoffed. Reid had a certain reputation with the girls around town. He wasn't exactly a charmer, or nearly as smooth as he thought he was, but he was known for having some rather unique "talents."

"What can I say? The ladies love me," Reid smirked.

"Hey! My sister doesn't count Dude!" Tyler corrected him. Tyler and Reid separated as they headed to separate classes across the hall from one another. Caleb and Pogue kept walking down the hall.


	14. Chapter 14

Jamie was right on time to meet Reid for lunch. She felt weird being back at Spenser Academy after so long. And she looked rather our of place in her ripped, sharpie-covered jeans and her Dior black halter top while all of the students wore their dreary school uniforms.

Reid waited for her in the Quad. She could tell that something was bothering him. She hoped he hadn't gotten accused of fighting because of his busted and swollen lip. Spenser Academy had a strict zero-tolerance policy about fighting.

Before Jamie could catch Reid's attention, Aaron intercepted her path. His eye looked awful from where Jamie had hit him the night before. It was all Jamie could do not to laugh at him. "Jamie, listen, I'm sorry." Aaron was actually apologizing. For him, that was big. Jamie knew it was a hard thing for him to do and respected that. "What I said about you…I was really drunk…it was still completely out of line."

"I'm sorry too," Jamie said, pointing timidly to the red, swollen bump where his left eye had been the day before. "How is it?"

"Not so bad," Aaron lied with a grin. He wouldn't ever admit to her how much it had hurt. "Jamie, I was a jerk. Can you give me a second chance?"

"I'd really like that," Jamie said, smiling.

"Good." Aaron leaned down and kissed Jamie. She kissed him back. Reid walked away confused and disgusted.

"Why don't I pick you up later and we can go to dinner?" Aaron suggested.

"Yeah. Pick me up at eight?"

"Perfect."

"I have to go. I'm meeting Reid for lunch." Jamie looked around and saw Reid walking away in the distance.

"Reid!" she called after him. He didn't turn around so she ran after him—shouting goodbye to Aaron at the same time.

"Reid!" Jamie finally caught up to him and he stopped. "What's up? I thought we were having lunch."

"And I thought that you were smarter than this!" Reid's temper often-times (like right then) got the best of him. "What were you doing kissing Aaron? He's a little shit Jamie!"

"He's your friend Reid! And he was apologizing for what happened last night—not that that is any of your business. I like him. He's funny and charming and sweet and new and different and exciting and dangerous. And he accepts me."

"What about me? Am I not all of those things to you?"

"You are all of those things—and more. You know that." Jamie didn't understand where this conversation was going.

"Then why Aaron?"

"Reid, what are you saying? You want me to pick you over Aaron? You suddenly want to start dating me after we've known each other our whole lives?" Jamie was so confused. She searched Reid's deep blue eyes looking for answers, but there were no answers to be had.

"I don't know." He really didn't know. He didn't know what he had meant. He didn't know what he was saying—the words had just sort of blurted out. He didn't know what he was thinking. "All I know is that I don't want to see you get hurt again Jamie. Especially by Aaron Abbots."

"Is he really that much worse for me than you are, Reid?"

"What? Jamie, I would never hurt you. Don't you know that?" Reid was hurting in a place he had never hurt before, somewhere deep inside of him. Jamie's words had hit him like a brick wall.

"Really Reid? Have you ever been with a girl for more than a few days? I'm not the kind of girl you're looking for."

Jamie's words were so soft, but they still knocked the wind out of Reid's chest. "I'm really not very hungry right now. I'll see you at home." Reid started walking away again.

"Reid?" Jamie called. "Reid!"

Jamie could feel the tears pricking at the back of her eyes. What had just happened? Had Reid really wanted to be with her?

Aaron saw Jamie sitting on a bench and sat next to her, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. "You okay?" She looked like she had just lost her best friend in the world.

Maybe she just had.

"Yeah. I'm just a little confused. Stupid fight with Reid and everything, you know?" she answered. Reid and Aaron had had more stupid fight over the years than Jamie could count. She knew Aaron would understand.

"Anything I can simplify for you?" Aaron asked with a suggestive grin.

"Maybe." Jamie smiled, looked up into Aaron's eyes, and moved in for the kiss.

"I think you're late for class," Jamie said between kisses.

"I think I am," Aaron agreed, though he didn't make an attempt to get to class. The bell rang for the last time before students were counted tardy. Aaron didn't stop kissing Jamie or make his hands stop slowly searching the inside of her shirt as she was wedged between him and the wall of the empty swim team locker room.

"I have to go," Jamie told him, also not stopping herself from continuing to search Aaron's mouth with her tongue.

"Then go."

"Mmm…you first."

"Jamie?" It was Caleb. _Shit!_

"Caleb!" Jamie jumped at the sound of his voice, suddenly eager to separate from Aaron.

"What do you want Danvers?" Aaron asked him.

"I'm meeting Coach Pratt here." Coach Pratt was the swim coach and Caleb was his golden boy senior Captain.

"Tyler doesn't need to know about his." Jamie looked pleadingly at Caleb.

"No. He doesn't," Caleb agreed hastily. _Fuck, I didn't need to know—or especially witness—this either, _Caleb thought.

"Bye Aaron." Jamie promptly headed for the door without looking back.


	15. Chapter 15

Jamie and Aaron spent two fun hours eating and playing pool at Nicky's before deciding to watch a movie at Jamie's house. They heard the door open half way through the opening credits. Jamie looked up from where she and Aaron sat on the new couch in the living room; Reid was home.

Jamie hadn't seen Reid since they're fight at the school. Jamie wanted so badly to talk to Reid, to make things right. Jamie asked Aaron to wait for a minute while she talked to Reid and then went to meet him at the door.

"Reid, can we talk?" she asked. "I really hate the way we left things earlier."

"Now really isn't a good time." Reid sounded so cold and so distant. He wouldn't even look her in the eyes. It gave Jamie the chills. Then Jamie saw the knob turn again. In walked a blonde bimbo in heels, a micro-mini skirt, and a sequined tube-top. She looked like a fucking hooker in Jamie's opinion.

"Whatever Reid." Jamie rolled her eyes and stormed off, back to Aaron.

"What was that about?" Aaron asked as Jamie took her seat back.

"Nothing important," Jamie sighed to him. She laid her head on Aaron's shoulder and pressed play on the remote. _Only our friendship._

It wasn't ten minutes until Jamie and Aaron heard banging from upstairs. Jamie felt sick to her stomach at the noise. What Reid was upstairs doing was so special and he was wasting it on revenge of all things. It was such a stupid fight anyway. Reid was acting so weird. He couldn't possibly like Jamie—not like _that_. He just didn't' want Aaron to like her. He would realize that eventually, wouldn't he?

Reid hated the fact that Jamie had invited Aaron over to THEIR home. He hated that Jamie was with Aaron. He hated that Jamie actually liked Aaron. He hated even more that he had a gorgeous girl in his bed willing to anything he liked, and all he could think about was Jamie. She was the girl he would never have.

Tyler and Pogue arrived home at the same time from studying for finals. They saw Aaron Abbots' car. That couldn't be good. Neither of them recognized the other car out front.

Jamie was worried that she would have another fight with Tyler when he came home to find her with Aaron. But she was sixteen. She could decide whether or not to date Aaron all on her own. Tyler would have to get used to seeing them together.

"Jamie, can we talk?" she heard Tyler ask when he saw them.

"Sure." Jamie stood up and walked with Tyler to the kitchen, dreading the impending argument about her relationship. They sat at the table and Jamie let out a sigh. "I don't want to fight with you again Tyler."

"I don't' want to fight either. We've fought enough since you came home. That's why I wanted to tell you that if Aaron makes you happy, then I want you to be with Aaron."

"He does make me happy. I really like him Tyler."

"But you have to give Reid time. Reid and Aaron have hated each other for a long time now. They won't be able to get used to being around one another again over night."

"Why? They used to be so close." When Jamie had moved, they had been best friends.

"There was a girl a few years ago. Reid fell head over heels for her. She wanted a commitment. When Reid couldn't' give her that, she got it from Aaron. Then Aaron broke her heart. Reid got furious with Aaron for hurting Savannah like that and they had it out. No one really knows what was said between them as they fought, but they've hated each other ever since," Tyler explained.

"Cant' you talk to him for me? I tried to tell him how happy Aaron makes me feel. I tried to make him understand. But he won't listen to me. Tyler, I don't want Reid to hate me, but he can't make me choose between him and Aaron."

"Where is he?"

"Upstairs with some slut. They're…_busy_."

"Got it. I'll try to talk to him in the morning. Okay?"

"Thank you Tyler—for everything." Jamie stood up to hug her brother. "You and me, we're going to be okay, right?"

"We already are. I'll always be here for you Jamie, even if I don't agree with what you're doing. I want you to know that." Tyler held onto Jamie for a good five minutes before heading to bed.

When Jamie got back to Aaron they decided that it was time for him to head back to the dorms since he had his first final the next day.

Jamie walked him to his car. "Goodnight," She said with a kiss.

"Night." Aaron kissed her back.

"You'll call me tomorrow?"

"I promise."

Jamie was about to kiss Aaron again with she got a chill up her spine and a creepy feeling. "Are you okay?" Aaron asked her.

"Yeah, I just got this weird feeling—like someone was watching us."

"It's probably just from the movie," Aaron reasoned. They'd been watching a horror movie.

"Yeah. I'm sure of it," Jamie agreed, though something still didn't feel right. "I'll see you later."

"Bye."


	16. Chapter 16

The two weeks before Christmas had been crazy. Jamie had re-decorated and Re-furnished the house, the boys had finished exams, and everyone had spent a week shopping all day and partying all night.

Jamie and Aaron were extremely happy together and sickeningly cute. They were always holding hands or sharing a drink or sneaking in a kiss while no one was watching.

Reid had been with a new girl every night. Eight girls in nine days was a record, even for him. But every time he would kiss one of those girls, he could only think of Jamie. Why couldn't he get her out of his head?

All Jamie could think about was spending Christmas with Tyler and her dad. Reid and Pogue and Caleb, and Aaron, and Kate, and Sarah were coming over for Christmas Eve—the day Jamie and Tyler's dad promised to be home—and Tyler was spending Christmas morning with Jamie and their dad but was staying with his mom for dinner. Tyler had invited Jamie over to his mom's house for dinner. She had declined the offer because it had been three years since she had seen her dad last and she was excited that they would get to spend the whole night catching up—just the two of them.

Jamie waited on her dad all day. She convinced everyone to wait dinner on him. But at nine that night, when everyone was hungry and there was still no word from Glenn Sims, they ate without him. Tyler left numerous voicemail messages on his father's cell phone on his sister's behalf. But Glenn never called back. Jamie pretended like she was okay, like she understood why her dad couldn't spend Christmas with her the same month that her mom walked out on her. Jamie was too proud to admit that she was hurt. But Jamie's heart did hurt, and everyone could tell.


	17. Chapter 17

IT was hard for Jamie and Reid to have rooms next door to each other and share a bathroom everyday without speaking to one another. But over the weeks after Jamie and Aaron started dating, the friends did just that. Reid refused to speak to Jamie because of her relationship with Aaron. Jamie was angry that Reid was being so stubborn and immature and thus refused to speak to him.

Jamie and Aaron's relationship, however, seemed to have no end in sight. They spent almost every night playing pool at Nicky's, studying in Aaron's dorm room, partying with their friends, or making out wherever they happened to be when they were in the mood. Some of their favorite spots included, however were never limited to the back stairwell at school, the alley behind Nicky's, the swim team locker room, the parking lot, the back of the lunchroom at school, the school's quad, Jamie's car, Aaron's car, Aaron's dorm room, and on occasion, the roof of the Starbucks that overlooked the Dells.

The only problem was that Aaron wanted to take their relationship to the next level—a more intimate level. But Jamie couldn't bring herself to take that step with Aaron. She really did care about him. And he really did make her very happy. She loved to be with him and LOVED to make out with him, but she wasn't ready to take their relationship to such an intimate place yet.

Besides, Jamie couldn't stay with Aaron over night. She'd been having nightmares nearly every night. She would wake up unable to remember anything, but would be out of breath and lamps or chairs would be over-turned, her CD collection would be shattered on the floor, or her computer screen would be cracked. She knew that if Aaron—or anyone—knew her secrets, they would discover the Covenant of Silence as well. Jamie wouldn't be able to live with herself if that happened because of her.

Finally, Tyler had had enough. He called a meeting of the Covenant. All four boys convened at Caleb's family's old colony house. In the basement were five stone seats surrounding a stone table, hundreds of magic-related books, and a good five to six hundred candles, all lit.

"Tyler, what's going on?" Caleb asked.

"I'm worried about Jamie. She's out of control. She's been drinking all of the time. And I think she's been using lately," Tyler stated.

"What do you mean?" Pogue wondered.

"When she thinks she's alone she's been doing stupid, small things. She'll refill her drinks or change the channel on the TV or the other day I even caught her turning a green shirt black. But I can tell that there's more than that," Tyler explained to his friends.

"She's been having dreams a lot lately," Reid added. "She's completely asleep but things break or start to move around the room."

"Has she said anything to you?" Caleb wanted to know.

"She isn't even speaking to me," Reid reminded the other three. "I can hear her though."

"I think there's more to this," Tyler told them. "She told me about the nightmares. But I can feel her. It's almost like when Chase showed up last semester. But instead of only feeling it sometimes, it's every time she uses.

"I feel it when she has the nightmares or makes the water in the shower warmer. I've also felt her during class or while she's out at parties or when she's out running in the mornings. She's using all the time. And it's getting stronger lately. I don't know to do about it anymore. I tried to talk to her and she promised me she would stop using so much and that she would stop drinking every night. But it hasn't stopped. If anything, it's worse than ever."

"What can we do to stop her?" Pogue asked. "If she won't listen to you, why would she listen to any of us?"

"I don't know. But there has to be something we can do." Tyler refused to accept that he was helpless.

"Tyler's right. There has to be something. Jamie's powers aren't like ours. They're brought out by her emotions. She can't always control them yet either. If she's drinking like Tyler says she is, she's bound to be caught eventually," Reid reasoned.

What the boys were unaware of was that at that moment, Jamie was about to be hit with such a huge wave of emotion, she wouldn't be able to control anything, least of all her powers which were still relatively new to her and she was still figuring out.

"Aaron! You stupid fuck!" Jamie screamed at him in rage. "I hate you!"

"I don't fucking care anymore Jamie! I'm through with this! I'm through waiting for you!"

"So you never cared about me? All you wanted was a good fuck? You figured because I broke the rules and didn't conform to what everyone else thought I should be, that I was the girl for the job. Just tell me, how many others have there been?" Jamie was standing in the doorway to Aaron's dorm room watching him in bed with Cynthia Hawkins—Jamie's lab partner and a known Spenser Academy slut.

"Enough," Aaron answered her coldly.

Jamie stormed her way down the dorm hallways without saying a word. Her eyes were black and she wasn't blinking. Luckily, she was outside, in the woods behind the school before she did any real damage. Jamie looked at a tree and it split in half. She blew two boulders into tiny pieces of dirt. Then the tears hit. Jamie looked up at the blue sky, her eyes still as black as night, as a tear rolled down her face. In seconds the sky turned gray and it started to rain.

"Impressive." Jamie spun around on her heels to see a boy not but a few years older than herself standing behind her. "You've even inherited the black eyes I see. And I must say that I'm quite intrigued that a girl would inherit such an impressive display of talent. But mine is better."

The boy facing Jamie smiled a sinister smile in her direction and soon his eyes matched hers. "Nice to meet you Chase."


	18. Chapter 18

Pogue was late to pick Kate up for their date. Caleb and Tyler decided to grab something to eat and invited Reid, but he declined saying that he needed to clear his head. He went for a walk instead.

Reid didn't know where he was going or why he was going there. He just started walking. He needed to think. He needed to figure out what was going on with him. He needed to admit to himself that he was in love with Jamie. Of course he had known all along that he was crazy about her. He'd been crazy about her since they were kids. But he had never seen her with another guy before. He hadn't thought it would make him so jealous.

Before he realized it, Reid ended up at the school. He noticed it was getting late because the sky was completely dark by then. He decided to head back to the house. He would cut through the woods behind the school to save time because of the rain storm that had shown up while he was with the others at the Danvers' house.

When Reid reached the woods he could tell something was wrong. Something bad had happened there. He couldn't see anything, but he could feel it in every part of his body. That was when he heard something faint a few feet in front of him. Instinctively he turned his eyes black and allowed a light to appear in front of him, lighting his way.

There was a pile of rubble five or six feet ahead of him. At first he figured it was someone's lousy attempt at a bon fire. But as he got closer Reid realized that there was something under the rubble…or someone rather. Reid rushed over and began pulling the branches away from the girl trapped underneath. Reid thought he was going to be sick when under all of the branches and rocks he saw the only girl he had ever fallen in love with.

"Jamie! Jamie, can you hear me?" he called to her, pulling her up and holding her in his arms. She was still breathing. But she wasn't moving. "Jamie!"

Jamie could hardly make out someone calling her name. No. Not someone. Reid. Reid was there. She knew she would be okay. Reid had been right and Jamie should have known all along: Reid would never hurt her or let her be hurt. After all, Jamie had said it herself, Reid was safe.

"Don't worry Jamie; it's going to be okay. You're going to be okay," she heard him say.

But Jamie could hear the fear in his voice. Chase had done a number on her. That much she knew. His power was a lot stronger than hers. He'd kicked her ass. Her head was throbbing worse than any headache. She couldn't feel her left arm. That couldn't be good. And there was a stabbing pain in her side.

Jamie slowly opened her eyes. They filled with rain water almost immediately making her vision blurry. She could still make out Reid's silhouette in the glow of his cell phone pressed against his ear. _The paramedics_, Jamie assumed.

She was quickly proved wrong. "Mrs. Danvers? It's Reid. I need your help." Reid sounded panicked. Why was he calling Evelyn? Then Jamie remembered that before she had Caleb, Evelyn Danvers had been an ER nurse. _Nice going Reid._

Reid touched Jamie's left arm softly and a wave of pain shot through her entire body. At least she could fell her arm again. That was, however, the last thing Jamie remembered until she woke up at home.

Jamie recognized her living room. She recognized Reid's voice in the background. Who else was there? Someone was stroking her hair, someone with soft, smooth, steady hands. It certainly wasn't Reid's fidgety hands that had been calloused from holding a pool queue so often. It was a woman.

"Jamie, dear, it's Evelyn. Can you hear me Jamie?"

"Where's Reid?" Jamie asked, still groggy and unable to think straight.

"I'm right here Jamie!" Evelyn moved out of the way so that Reid could sit by Jamie. In the last forty-five minutes Evelyn had spent with Reid—the longest she had ever been alone with him—he had been completely focused on Jamie. When she had suggested Reid change into dry clothes, he had refused to leave Jamie's side. Evelyn had known Reid his whole life and she had never seen him care so much for anyone but himself. It was obvious that Reid Garwin was a boy in love.

"You're all wet," Jamie noticed as Reid sat next to her, holding her hand.

"You are too," Reid reminded her. He let out a small laugh. Was she really that concerned about his being wet? She had just been attacked by something horrible.

"Jamie, what happened to you? Who—or what—did this?" Evelyn asked her from in front of the fireplace.

"It was Chase. He's back and he's mad," Jamie told them. "Have you talked to Tyler?"

"I called him, but he wasn't answering his phone. Neither are Caleb or Pogue," Reid recalled. If Chase was back, chances were, Caleb was at the top of his shit-list. Everyone knew that it was only a matter of time before Caleb ran into trouble with Chase again.

"You don't think…" Jamie couldn't finish that thought.

"Both of you need to stop that," Evelyn said with a smile. "Caleb and Tyler are fine. I'm sure they just weren't able to hear their phones over the music at Nicky's. That place is horribly loud. I can't even begin to tell you how many phone calls Caleb has missed from me because he was in that place."

"Reid, you have to find them. You have to make sure that they're okay. And Pogue and the rest of the families. If Chase would come after me, what would stop him from coming after any of us?" Jamie was suddenly extremely concerned about her brother. She knew Chase wanted to get back at Caleb. If Tyler was with him when Chase attacked, Chase would have no concerns with taking him out too.

"Evelyn is right. Tyler and Caleb went to Nicky's for dinner. They probably can't hear their phones. And Pogue was taking Kate to a movie tonight. His phone is on silent probably," Reid assured her.

"Reid, please. Try to call them again," Jamie begged. She needed to know that they were alright. She needed to hear her brother's voice.

"Okay," Reid agreed. He pulled his cell phone from his pocket and walked out of the room to try to call them. He had a bad feeling and didn't want Jamie to over-hear his call.

"Jamie," Evelyn said as she walked back over to the girl. "I think we should take you to the hospital. You've been hurt really bad. Your shoulder was dislocated. Reid and I were able to push it back into place, but some of these cuts are deep. You need to be looked at by a real doctor. And by the look on your face, you need some pain medication stronger than aspirin."

"No. No hospitals." Jamie wished she could go to the hospital. She would love for them to give her something to make her body so numb that she couldn't feel the pain that came with her fight. But Jamie's parents were both MIA. If she went to a hospital, they would get the cops involved. That couldn't end well for Jamie. There was no way they would let her stay in a house with her eighteen-year-old brother and two of his eighteen-year-old friends. Her dad was the only adult on Earth irresponsible enough to allow that sort of living situation with no adult supervision.

"Jamie, you're in a lot of pain. You need to go," Evelyn argued. Apparently Caleb had yet to mention to his mom about Jamie's current situation. Or there was the fact that everyone knew Evelyn was a bit of an alcoholic and it was entirely possible that even if Caleb had told her about Jamie's parents, she wouldn't remember a word of the conversation.

"Evelyn, look, I can't go to the hospital. My dad is away on business—at least I think he is—and my mom is gone. No one has heard from either of them in weeks. They would call it neglect and they would take me away. I won't let them do that. Besides, I'll be okay, really. I have a really big tolerance for pain." Jamie was lying. She had absolutely no tolerance for pain actually. She freaked out if she got a paper cut. But she didn't feel like explaining to Evelyn that if she was admitted to the hospital—which she likely would be with no legal guardian to speak of—there was the distinct possibility that someone would have to explain why the furniture in her room was floating in the middle of the night or why the windows were all breaking on their own. The hospital wasn't even a possibility in Jamie's mind.

"Jamie…"

"Evelyn, I'll be fine."

"Okay. No hospitals. But if you need anything tonight—if the pain gets too bad—you'll call me? We'll figure something out to get you the help you need."

"Absolutely."

"Take care then. And get some sleep. It's getting late and you've had a trying night."

"Thank you Evelyn."

"Anytime my dear." Evelyn kissed the top of Jamie's head and left to find Reid. A few minutes later, Jamie heard the front door open and Evelyn's car pulling out of the driveway.

Reid walked back into the living room a moment later with a gruesome look on his face. Jamie knew that something bad had happened to Caleb and her brother.

"Chase found them, didn't he?" Jamie asked.

"Caleb is in the hospital. Tyler says he wasn't there. He had told Caleb he would meet him at Nicky's. Chase was already gone by the time he had gotten there," Reid told her, relaying the conversation he had just had with Tyler and again with Evelyn. She had left to go to the hospital to see her son already.

"We should change into something dry before we go," Jamie suggested. She couldn't wait to get out of her heavy, cold clothes.

"Where are we going? Jamie, you should stay here. You need to rest," Reid told her. "We dealt with Chase before and we can deal with him now. You shouldn't put yourself in the middle of this."

"I'm already in the middle of this Reid! Chase already involved me. Besides, I really don't want to be alone right now," Jamie argued. She tried to put on a brave front for Evelyn, but Jamie was scared. Chase had beaten her without breaking a sweat. He could easily have killed her if he had wanted to. He could just as easily kill her in her house, by herself, while everyone else was at the hospital with Caleb. She didn't want to be there by herself.

"I'll call Aaron for you. I'll ask him to stay here with you. If anything happens, you can call me. We'll be here before you know it." Reid hated the idea of Jamie and Aaron being there together alone. But it was better than leaving her alone. She was really hurt and there was no telling what bones she had broken that they didn't know about or whether or not she had hurt her head. A million things could go wrong and he knew that Aaron was better than nothing at the moment.

"No! Not Aaron!" Jamie exclaimed. She had almost forgotten about Aaron until that moment. But at the mention of his name, all of the tears were back and streaming down Jamie's face.

"What?" Reid asked. "What happened?" His stern expression quickly turned to one of compassion and concern. He could tell from the look on Jamie's face that Aaron Abbots had broken another heart.

"We broke up. It was really ugly. That's why I was in the woods to begin with. I could feel it rising inside of me, the power, and I knew that I couldn't control it. It was going to come out and it was going to be strong this time. I went to the woods so that no one would see me. Chase did. That's when he found me," Jamie re-told the story. "I can't face Aaron right now. Besides, I want to be there with you. Tyler, Pogue, Caleb and you can protect me in a way that no one else can. You're the only ones who can stand up to Chase. I want to be with you guys. I don't want you to leave me. And I want to see my brother. I need to see with my own eyes that he's okay."

"Okay, let's go." Reid started to help Jamie up from where she had been lying on the couch.

Jamie flinched from the pain as she sat up. "Stop!" she called to Reid. "Fuck!"

"Is it your arm?" Reid asked. Evelyn had found an old sling for Jamie, but her arm was still really sensitive and he knew that the slightest movement would hurt like hell.

"No. It's my side."

Reid lifted the bottom of Jamie's shirt to look at the spot on her ribs that was already beginning to swell and bruise. He felt of her ribs but none of them felt broken. "I think it's just bruised. We'll have Evelyn look at it when we get to the hospital to make sure though."

Jamie stood the rest of the way up and Reid helped her upstairs to her room where she changed clothes and pulled her wet curls into a ponytail. She looked in the mirror. She looked rough. Her lip was a little swollen. Her shoulder hurt worse than any pain she had ever experienced in her life. She had dark circles under her eyes because she was so tired. She knew Tyler was going to freak out when he saw her. As much as she was hurting, it looked a lot worse than it was.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N: I know it's been, like, forever since I updated. Sorry for the delay in the story. Not only have I been battling a nasty cold while working insanely long shifts all week (and OMG has it been a crazy week at work) but I've had probably the worst writer's block in my whole life this week. So bare with me. I'm working on the next few chapters right now so they will hopefully be up in the next few days. ******

Jamie wanted to cry just seeing her brother. She was so happy to see that he was okay. There wasn't a scratch on him. Jamie had always been every bit as protective of her big brother as he had been of her. She wanted to run to Tyler, but she knew that she was in no shape to run. She could hardly walk down the long hallways without Reid's help. She felt so useless, so weak.

Tyler had talked to Reid on the phone and Evelyn Danvers when she had arrived at the hospital. They had told him that Jamie had fought with Chase. They had told him that she was hurt badly. But Tyler felt his heart freefall into the pits of his stomach and land with a crash as he saw Reid helping Jamie make their way down the long white hallway. She looked so much worse than he ever could have imagined. His eyes began to water. How had he let Jamie get pulled into The Covenant's struggle with Chase? It was not her battle to fight.

Tyler didn't wait for Jamie and Reid to reach him at the waiting room at the end of the hallway; he sprinted to them, meeting them halfway, and held his sister. Tears began to slowly make their way down his rosy cheeks and into Jamie's black hair. Jamie could feel the water droplets hitting the top of her head and began to cry herself in reaction to them. With everything she and Tyler had been through in their lives, she had never once seen him shed a tear—not even one, not over anything. Even as children, when he would skin a knee or would fall from the monkey bars on the playground, he would get angry, but would never cry. Their father was the same way.

"I was so worried about you!" Jamie cried to him. She wrapped her one good arm around Tyler's waist and held on as tight as her bruised body would allow.

"I'm okay. Not even a scratch," Tyler assured his baby sister. She reminded him so much, in that moment, of the little sister who had left him and Ipswich, Massachusetts behind all those years ago to move to Miami with her mother. She reminded him so much of the little sister he had missed so much. And she reminded him so much of the person she would never be again.

Tyler tried not to hold Jamie too hard, fearing that he would hurt her. She looked so fragile.

"When Tyler said that Chase had come after you and Caleb…" Jamie was having trouble saying what she was thinking. It was so hard to say. It was so horrible to even think. "Tyler, I thought that you were dead. I thought I was all alone." Jamie began sobbing into her brother's shirt. She never wanted to let him go.

But her aching body thought otherwise.

Jamie felt her knees giving out under the weight of her body. They had never done that before. She gasped in surprise. Tyler's arms caught her immediately, as they were wrapped around her waist. But when Tyler caught Jamie his arm hit the spot on her ribs that hadn't stopped throbbing with pain since Chase had thrown her into a tree branch a good fifteen feet in the air. Jamie let out a cry of pain.

Tyler quickly helped Jamie to one of the bench seats in the waiting area at the end of the hall where Pogue and Kate were sitting holding hands from their chairs. "You shouldn't be here," Tyler said as he and Jamie sat side-by-side. Reid took a seat in the chair next to the bench on the side Jamie was sitting on after saying hello to Pogue and Kate. "You should be home resting."

"No. I had to make sure you were okay. I had to see for myself," Jamie exclaimed. She put her head on Tyler's shoulder and closed her eyes. "Besides," she said so softly that no one else would be able to hear her. "I didn't want to be there alone."

That was the moment that Tyler realized just how much Chase scared his sister. Jamie had never admitted to being scared before. She always tried to act tough. When things would bother her—the kids at school or her parents' fighting or whatever—she would try to act like she was okay. When Tyler or Reid or one of the other boys had confronted her about what was bothering her, she usually would tell them and talk about it in great detail. But she had never told Tyler that she was scared before. She had never come to him and clung to him the way she had done a moment earlier. He was beginning to realize that Jamie was not shaking because she was hurt. She was terrified.

Tyler wrapped his arm around Jamie's shoulders in an attempt to comfort her. Jamie took a deep breath and her shaking stopped. Tyler let out a small, almost silent sigh and the ends of his mouth curled ever-so-slightly into the beginnings of a smile. At least for right then, Tyler knew that he had his baby sister back.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N: Just wanted to give a huge freaking shout out to all of the awesome people who are leaving me the great reviews. You're a total confidence boost with my writing! Y'all rock my socks! Keep 'em coming please!!!**

It was almost one in the morning. Everyone was at the hospital: Tyler, Pogue, Reid, Pogue's parents and four-month-old baby brother, Reid's parents, Tyler's mom, Evelyn Danvers, Jamie, Kate, and Sarah. It didn't take long for Jamie to realize that the only people missing were her parents. Why did they have to be so…absent? But she was not going to think about them. They did not matter right then. There was too much else going on to sit and ponder why her parents could not handle parenthood. There was Caleb lying in a hospital bed not but a few feet away. There was the on-going concern of what the Covenant of Silence would be doing about Chase Collins. There was the fear that someone had seen Jamie or Caleb or even Chase using their powers in such public places. And there was the increasing pain in Jamie's head as she sat on an uncomfortable bench in the waiting room of the hospital.

"You look tired," Reid noted as he sat by her. Tyler had gone with his mom to get coffee and no one else seemed to be paying attention to them.

"So do you," Jamie retorted.

"You should try to get some sleep," Reid suggested. "Caleb won't be going anywhere tonight." Jamie let Reid place her head in his lap and begin to stroke her hair. She closed her eyes, but knew that she wouldn't be able to sleep, not that night. None of them would. There was too much to consider for any of them to get any sleep.

Jamie knew that she should be trying to decide whether or not anyone saw her and Chase fighting. She should be thinking about how they could get rid of Chase once and for all. She should be thinking about poor Caleb lying in the hospital room a few feet away. But Jamie couldn't think about any of those things. All Jamie could think about was how happy she was that Tyler was okay, and that Reid was once again speaking to her.

It had been weeks since she and Reid had fought in the courtyard at Spenser Academy. Her relationship with Reid hadn't been the same since then. But with everything that was happening, Jamie did not think that she could get through all of it without Reid at her side, right where he had always been. Whether either of them ever admitted it to the other, Jamie and Reid needed each other. They always had and they always would. They had an understanding about each other. They got each other. And not many people got either of them.

Jamie understood Reid's odd sense of humor and his vulnerability towards needing anyone other than himself. Reid understood Jamie's need for adventure and her need for security. They fit like pieces of a puzzle. They had become a part of one another of the years. Even if neither of them actually realized it.

Jamie heard Tyler and his mom, Olivia, walk back up to the group. "You should take Jamie home," Tyler told Reid.

Jamie opened her eyes slightly. "No. I'm okay," she assured her big brother.

"Jamie, it's been a long night. And you're hurt. You need to go home and get some sleep. Nothing else is going to happen tonight. And if we hear anything, I promise I'll call you," Tyler reasoned.

Jamie opened her mouth to protest, but Tyler stopped her. "For once, Jamie, please just listen to me. Okay? If nothing else, do it because I'm your big brother and I am begging you."

"Okay," Jamie agreed.

"I'll go pull the car around," Reid said as he got up and took Jamie's keys outside.

Tyler walked with Jamie to the door to wait on Reid. "You won't come home with us?" she asked him.

"No. I should be here to keep an eye on things. Besides, I think the two of you need some time alone." Tyler smiled, which surprised Jamie greatly. "It's obvious what's been going on between you two. But from the looks of it the two seem to have made up. I just, I think that you need time to talk everything out."

"Thank you," was all Jamie could think of to say to Tyler right then. Sure, she was a little embarrassed that her brother knew that she was totally crushing on his best friend, but she completely agreed: she and Reid needed to talk alone.


	21. Chapter 21

Reid could tell that Jamie was exhausted by the time they arrived home at almost three that morning. He helped Jamie to her room so she could put on something more comfortable than jeans, a tank top, and his jacket. Then he went to his own room so that he could think. Shouldn't having powers have made life simpler somehow? Then why was everything so damn confusing all the time?

Jamie appeared in Reid's doorway a few minutes later looking much cozier in her flannel pajama pants, her white pajama tank top, and her hot pink bunny slippers. "Reid, we need to talk."

Jamie had spent weeks attempting to coerce Reid to speak to her. He had always had a good excuse to blow her off. But when Jamie finally had Reid's attention and could finally say everything she had spent the last few weeks thinking up, the words wouldn't come out anymore. Suddenly everything she had wanted to tell him seemed so wrong.

Jamie was no longer with Aaron. He wasn't the problem anymore. Besides, after catching Aaron in the act, she understood exactly what Reid had been telling her all along.

Reid scooted to the side of his bed and pulled back the covers for Jamie to climb under them. Jamie did just that and lay with her head on Reid's shoulder.

"I want us to be okay again," Jamie said. "I can't stand this rift between us anymore. I need for us to go back to the way we used to be."

"I don't think I can do that Jamie. Things will never be the same between us again," Reid admitted softly. He had known this conversation had been coming for weeks. He hadn't realized until earlier that night, before he had found Jamie lying in the woods behind the school, what exactly he had wanted to tell Jamie. But Reid, being the not-so-smooth talker he was, had fumbled the words and everything had come out all wrong.

Jamie sat up and looked Reid in the eyes through her own tear-filled ones. She needed answers, something. She needed Reid. But his face, his eyes, his expression, they gave away nothing.

Reid sat up to meet Jamie's gaze, to ease her fears, to explain what he had actually meant to say before he fucked it all up. "It made me crazy these last few weeks. I couldn't stand to see you with Aaron because I couldn't stand to see you with anyone who wasn't me.

"I missed you so much these last few years. When you moved to Miami, I felt like a part of me had left too. I missed you so much it hurt. But I managed to burry the pain under my friends and sex and alcohol and parties and everything else in my life. At least, I did until I saw you kiss Aaron at school that day. That was a hurt that I had never felt before.

"Jamie, I think I'm in love with you."

"No."

That hadn't been quite the response Reid had been hoping for.

The tears began to roll down Jamie's cheeks. "Don't say that you love me Reid Garwin. I don't want you to break my heart. I couldn't survive if you broke my heart. And if you say that—that you love me—if you say it now because we both know something horrible is about to happen that we may or may not be around to see end, if we win this thing—if we survive—and it isn't true, my heart will break into so many pieces that I won't be able to fix it again."

"Jamie, that isn't it at all. You don't have to worry about anything, not as far as Chase is concerned. Nothing else bad is going to happen to you. I promise. No matter what, I'll be there. I'll protect you. I really do love you. I'm not saying this because I think we're about to die. This is me. I'm not good at sensitive shit like that," Reid teased.

"You mean it? Because I can't let my heart break again." Jamie needed to ask, to hear Reid say it himself. But she could tell in his voice and in his eyes, that this was the real deal. Reid Garwin was finally admitting that he was in love with her.

"I mean every damn word," Reid promised. He wiped at Jamie's tears and pushed a strand of hair behind her ear.

Then, like two attracted magnets—or a scene out of a corny teen flick—their lips locked in the first of many long, passionate kisses that they would share that morning. At last, just as the sun was peeking silently above the horizon, Jamie and Reid fell asleep in each others' arms.


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N: This is really like a half chapter that is mostly just to update you on what happens between some of the chapters. It isn't much, but the next chapter should be up sometime tomorrow.**

The weeks passed quickly and with relative normalcy other than the new oddness of Reid and Jamie being together in a way that they never had been before. They tried to be at least semi-respectful of Tyler's feelings towards their relationship by keeping the PDA's to a minimum when he was around, but with Tyler being Jamie's brother and Reid's best friend and the three of them living together, it wasn't always possible. When Reid and Jamie had finally admitted to one another that they were in love with each other, the flood gates opened and they were suddenly inseparable and sickeningly cute—at least, when they thought no one else was watching. They did still have reputations to protect. They couldn't be seen as cute and cuddly.

Tyler was okay with Jamie and Reid's relationship. It was weird to be at school and turn a corner only to see his sister and best friend sneaking a kiss between classes or to catch them holding hands under the table in the library when Jamie actually convinced Reid to study with her. But Tyler knew Reid and Jamie well enough to know that they really were in love. They needed each other.

Chase had stayed hidden since the night he had attacked Jamie in the woods behind the school and Caleb in the alley behind Nicky's. The Sons of Ipswich didn't mind not having to fight Chase until they had some sort of plan, but the anticipation, knowing Chase could attack at any moment and catch one of them off-guard—they almost couldn't stand it anymore.


	23. Chapter 23

Caleb had been acting weird all day. At school, he had hardly said a word to anybody, even Sarah. After school, Sarah expressed her concerns for her boyfriend over a boyfriend-free afternoon of shopping with Kate and Jamie.

"He's been so quiet and reserved the last few days," Sarah told her friends as she held up a blue halter top in a mirror. Jamie had handed it to her but she wasn't sure about wearing something so revealing.

"Maybe he's been tired. He's been training really hard for the swim finals." Jamie took the Seven jeans she had been looking at into the dressing rooms and found a stall.

Sarah and Kate followed Jamie, each carrying a handful of outfits. "I don't know," Sarah said from the next stall. "I have this really bad feeling about this. It's like there's something that he's hiding. Something is definitely bothering him more than usual."

All three girls stepped out of the stalls to examine themselves in the three-way mirror. "Sarah, you have to confront him," Kate told her room mate.

"Kate's right. There's a time to—OhmyGod! That top looks amazing on you!—let him have his space and maybe even a few secrets, but there's also a time to push. Caleb feels completely responsible for not killing Chase last fall. With everything that's gone on the last few months, if you think he's hiding something, it's definitely time to push for some answers," Jamie reasoned.

"Wait. You think that Chase has something to do with this?" Sarah asked her friend. "And Kate, that skirt is SO you."

"Jamie's right. I Know Pogue is freaking out about Chase still. Did you know that he actually suggested that I leave town right after what happened to Jamie and Caleb? All of the boys are freaking out. They know as well as we do that what happened that night, it could happen to any of us, anytime. Even if they won't admit it, they're as scared as we are." Kate spun around in front of the mirror to carefully examine the skirt. "And I am so getting this to wear to the party tonight."

"Sarah, you just have to confront Caleb about what's bothering him," Jamie stated.

Jamie, Sarah, and Kate all shuffled back into their stalls to change back into their own clothes. "Okay, so, I need you guys' help with something," Jamie told them as she slipped her own jeans on.

"Uh-oh," Kate sighed. "I swear I can _hear_ you smiling that evil and mischievous smile that you only smile when you're scheming something that is going to end up with all of us in trouble."

"Scheming? Me? Never!" Jamie laughed. "I'm helping. I'm going to find a girl for Tyler. I mean, he is sort of hopeless with the ladies. He's too shy for his own good."

Jamie walked with Kate and Sarah to the checkout.

"And how exactly do you plan to get Tyler to actually speak to a human of the female variety?" Sarah needed to know.

In the three months since Jamie had moved home she had masterminded hundreds of schemes, almost all of which seemed to have backfired and landed her in detention. Sarah and Kate couldn't even begin to imagine what on Earth went on inside of Jamie Sims' head.

Tyler was extremely well liked. He hung out mostly with Reid and Jamie and their other radically rebellious friends from school, but he was always nice to everyone. Tyler was attractive too. Plus, it was no secret that Tyler came from some money. He was one of the four Sons of Ipswich. Tyler Sims was a catch.

But relationships with Tyler came with another catch too: he was impossibly shy when girls were involved. His mouth dried up, his throat closed up, the words disappeared from his head, and his naturally rosy cheeks would glow a deep shade of red. It was cute really, but it made conversation with him a little hard.

"I have no idea how to pull this off, but prom is only a few weeks away and he needs a date. I mean, Sarah, you're going with Caleb. Kate, you'll go with Pogue. Reid and me will be there together. And we're all going out to eat together before the dance. I don't want Tyler to be alone. And he can't seriously be thinking about going to Aaron's anti-prom party."

"Okay," Kate agreed.

"But, please, no crazy schemes!" Sarah begged.


	24. Chapter 24

Caleb met Sarah in front of the school. He was in no mood to go to a party but Jamie had talked Sarah into going and she had persuaded him to take her.

"Hey Baby," Caleb greeted Sarah, followed with a whistle. She was in a pair of tight jeans and a blue v-neck halter top. No doubt this was Jamie and Kate's influences. But he didn't hate it by any means.

"Hey Reid," Sarah teased hi as she climbed into Caleb's Mustang.

"Hey now!" The couple shared a quick kiss to say Hello and they were off.

Even though spring was just around the corner, the air was still cool once the sun went down. Caleb noticed Sarah had goose bumps and offered her a jacket from the backseat.

While Sarah slipped the blue coat over her shoulders she noticed that a piece of paper had fallen out of the jacket in the backseat. She didn't want the wind to catch it and it fly out the back, so she picked it up to place in the front seat for safe-keeping. She didn't mean to snoop, but she caught a glance of the note and her heart nearly stopped.

_I did it before and I can do it again. Friday in the woods behind Spenser Academy. Sunset. Be there or I'll finish what I started._

Sarah's heart skipped a beat and she let out a gasp. Caleb noticed and gave her a worried look. "What's wrong?"

"Caleb, this fell out of your jacket. What is it? Is this from Chase?" She handed him the note. Why wouldn't he have told her about it? After her conversation with Jamie and Kate that afternoon, the only explanation she could think of was Chase. He had almost killed her before. He had put her under a spell twice. Was he really going to kill her if Caleb didn't meet him and fight him?

"It's not mine," Caleb assured her. "Reid left it in here when I gave him a ride home the other day. It's what I've been so worried about all day. I didn't find it until last night and I didn't have a chance to confront Reid about it all day today. I'll talk to him at the party though. He should still be there with Jamie." Caleb could tell Sarah was scared. "You don't have to worry. I won't let anything happen."

Sarah nodded but knew Kate had been right: the boys put up a brave front, but they were all terrified of what Chase could do. Chase was more powerful than ever and that meant he was more powerful than any of the Sons of Ipswich. And with the way Reid always seemed to act before he thought things through, Chase would kill him in a fight one-on-one. Surely even Reid wasn't hot-headed enough to try to take Chase on by himself.

Reid and Jamie were supposed to meet at the party. Reid got finished with swim team practice late and Jamie had met some friends for dinner. Jamie arrived before Reid and grabbed a drink from the keg while she waited.

"Jamie! Where's Reid?" Jamie turned around to see Caleb, Sarah, Pogue, and Kate all running towards her at the bon fire.

"He should be at home getting a shower. He wanted to wash his hair before the chlorine turned his hair green again," Jamie told them.

"He left practice hours ago," Pogue noted.

"What? He stayed late today." Jamie was getting a nauseous feeling. Something was wrong.

"Jamie, Reid left practice early. He didn't tell you where he was going?" Caleb wanted to know.

"No. He said he was staying late to work with the coach. He was supposed to meet me here. What's going on? Jamie felt the tears swelling up in her eyes and didn't know how much longer she could be questioned about Reid's whereabouts and not know why she was being questioned.

"Reid accidentally left this in Caleb's car the other day." Sarah handed Jamie the note reluctantly. She knew how she would feel if it was Jamie handing her a note like that about Caleb. She didn't want to be the one to cause Jamie's heart to break. But she also knew that Jamie needed to know what was going on.

Jamie felt like she was going to be sick. She knew Reid had gone alone to find Chase. "I can't believe him!" Jamie shouted, now in full-blown tears. "Why would he try to stop Chase alone? Why would he do this?"

"Because he didn't want you to get hurt. Jamie, the woods behind the school are massive. Do you know where they might be?" Pogue asked her as Sarah held her in a hug.

"The same place Reid found me after Chase attacked me that night."

"Where's Tyler? Is he here yet?" Sarah asked.

"Yeah. He's on a walk with Camilla Johnson," Jamie told them. Her plan had worked and she had finally found a girl that was perfect for Tyler. Camilla loved to talk about anything. She just wanted to talk. Since Tyler seemed to be so quiet around girls, Jamie had thought that they would be perfect for each other.

But the man who was perfect for her was in a lot of danger. She had to help him.

Pogue pulled out his cell phone and called Tyler to tell him he was needed.

"We need to go," Jamie urged her friends. Every second counted.

"No," Caleb corrected her. "WE don't need to go anywhere. You're going to tell me where Reid is and Pogue, Tyler and I are going to find him while you, Kate, and Sarah get back to the dorms and stay put until one of us comes to get you."

"No way Caleb! It won't happen! I can't stay put in the dorms while everyone I care about in life is out fighting what could be a fatal battle! Caleb, I can help you!" Jamie argued.

"Jamie, the last thing Reid and Tyler and Pogue and I need is to worry about you being hurt. Besides, if something happens, Sarah and Kate won't be able to stop Chase. You have to be there to make sure they're safe. You could be the last chance any of us has got."

"Caleb, I can't do it. I can't sit by. I won't go to the dorms. And every second we stand here arguing is one more second that Reid is alone with Chase!"

Caleb couldn't argue with that logic. "Okay. But the three of you stay in the car. And if anything happens, you get the hell out of there."

"Absolutely." Jamie followed her friends to find Tyler who was waiting for them at his car. After Pogue's cryptic yet urgent phone call, Tyler was more than a little confused about what was going on.

"What the hell is going on?" Tyler asked as everyone piled into the Hummer he was so proud of.

"Just drive. We have to get to the woods behind campus," Jamie told him, completely serious and seeming void of all emotion. Her face was no longer showing fear or anger or hurt or confusion. It was just blank. She felt blank. She had felt so much emotion all at once that her mind wasn't able to process all of it so in that moment, she ceased to feel anything at all.


	25. Chapter 25

Tyler's Hummer pulled up to a cliff over-looking the ocean and surrounded by trees. There was a flash of light from the sky—almost like lightening but at the same time nothing like lightening—and Jamie and Tyler saw it hit Reid square in the chest. He fell backwards from the force of the hit and laid on the ground, still, almost lifeless for the usually jumpy and fidgety boy.

Jamie jumped from the car screaming and running towards where Reid lay unconscious on the ground. Pogue caught Jamie around her waist and held her back. He didn't have to look to know that her eyes were black. There was no way someone that size could be using that much strength on her own.

But Jamie's power wasn't focused on her. She wasn't using it to gain strength to escape from Pogue's grasp. She was using to send everything she had in Reid's direction. She hoped that anything she sent him, he could use to wake up before Chase came back to finish with him. Jamie couldn't bear to sit by and watch as Chase hurt Reid. She was fairly sure she wouldn't be able to recover if she ever had to watch him die. But her strength, that was all her. It was more than she had ever known she was capable of, but she wasn't surprised. She had always heard that people seemed to attain un-explainable strength when people they cared about were in danger.

Pogue used every ounce of his own muscle—quite a bit after four years of being on the high school swim team—to restrain Jamie. If she ran to Reid's side then Chase would kill her. He had been in a confrontation with Chase before and he knew what Chase was capable of. He wasn't human anymore. He was a cold-blooded killer. There was no mercy left in him. The power had sucked every bit of humanity out of him.

"Jamie! Stop it! This is just what Chase wants!" Pogue shouted.

"Reid!" was all Jamie could manage. She didn't care if Chase was there. All she cared about was being at Reid's side and making sure he was okay. He still wasn't moving. Besides, Chase was no where to be seen. Jamie figured he must have seen Tyler's Hummer, Pogue's bike, and Caleb's Mustang pull up and he got scared and ran off. Sure, Chase had used her, Caleb, and now Reid as punching bags, but he had never confronted the Sons of Ipswich together. They could defeat him. She knew that they could. She knew that Chase knew that they could. Otherwise, he would have killed them all by now.

"Jamie!" Tyler called to her. He ran to her, grabbed her by the hand, and ran with her back to his truck. He saw the black in her eyes dissipate into the natural green. But the worry, the fear that Reid wasn't waking up, the frustration of not being able to do anything, and the constant paranoia from the last few weeks that had been wearing on them all, it was all still as clear as day in her eyes.

"Stay here!" Tyler ordered. "I'll get Reid. I promise you that everything will be okay. We're going to win this. Chase won't take anything else from us," Tyler assured her with a quick hug before running away into the clearing of the cliff where Reid was still lying, still un-moving.

Jamie watched her brother running to the boy she was going to spend the rest of her life with. She watched as Tyler shook Reid. She watched as Reid just laid there. Then she watched as a figure appeared behind her brother without his knowing. It came from thin air. It was Chase.

"Tyler!" she screamed to him. "Watch out!"

Tyler turned to face the boy who had made his life a living hell for his senior year of high school. His eyes were instantly covered in black and his face was one that Jamie had never seen before. It was a mix of fear, exhaustion, known victory, and a hatred that Jamie had never known Tyler to have before.

"You tried to kill my sister!" Tyler screamed at him.

"I almost did kill your sister. I could have if I had wanted to. She was just a message," Chase smiled at him.

"I'll fucking kill you!" Tyler leapt at Chase, causing him to fall backwards to the ground. The two rolled on the ground in a wrestling match for what seemed like an eternity. Then, as Tyler stood over Chase, thinking he was unconscious, Chase kicked his feet into Tyler's gut with a force that could have ripped Tyler's torso in half. Tyler went flying backwards into the air, landing against a tree and falling to the ground only feet away from Reid.

Caleb and Pogue had stood shocked into silent paralysis as they had watched Tyler fighting Chase. They had never seen him like that. He had never been that angry or that passionate. He was the quiet and shy boy of the four of them. They felt like it was probably good for him to work out some of his eighteen years worth of resentment towards everything that had ever happened to him in life. They would step in if he needed help.

Well, Tyler needed help. Chase was walking towards him with a look of passion in his eyes. The only thing that Chase Collins was ever passionate about was avenging his father, his family; he was passionate about killing the Sons of Ipswich.

"What the fuck are you doing here?" Tyler heard as someone slapped him awake. He opened his eyes. It was Reid. He looked rough, but at least he was alive.

"What the fuck were you thinking?" Tyler asked his best friend.

"Didn't you read the note? I couldn't let him hurt Jamie." Reid helped Tyler to his feet.

"Why didn't you come to us? You can't beat Chase alone."

"You can't beat me together either," Chase said from behind them.

The friends spun around to look at him. Chase had Caleb and Pogue to either side of him, a steady stream of energy hitting each of the so hard that they were paralyzed and powerless to the pain.

Before any of the boys knew what was going on, an orb of energy hit Chase from the side. He lost his concentration long enough for Caleb and Pogue to fall to their knees gasping for breath. Chase fell to the ground unconscious. Only, he didn't fall sideways from Jamie's hit. Everyone turned their heads to see Sarah standing over Chase's body holding a large rock in her hand, the blood on the bottom of it matching the blood running from the back of Chase's head.

"Never fuck with my boyfriend!" she shouted over the crashing waves from the ocean below them.

Tyler reached over to check Chase's pulse. There wasn't one. Five powerful witches had spent almost a year trying to defeat Chase. Who ever would have thought that one pissed-off teenage girl with a rock could have killed him?

But nothing in Ipswich, Massachusetts ever seemed to work out as planned. And thing were rarely as they seemed to be…


End file.
